Warnings to UAE drivers needed, says ambulance chief

Thomas Edelmann, founder of the website Road Safety UAE, says showing the human cost of dangerous driving would force people to rethink their actions behind the wheel. Sarah Dea / The National

ABU DHABI // Road safety experts and ambulance chiefs are praising families of crash victims for sharing their stories of how their loved ones were injured on the region’s roads.

Rob Ball, National Ambulance Service chief executive, said by highlighting the impact of traffic incidents this would alert the community of the potentially devastating consequences of dangerous driving.

Many ambulance staff, he said, witnessed first-hand the results of crashes caused by reckless driving or speeding.

“We are at the start,” Mr Ball said. “What then follows is the emergency department, surgery, intensive care unit and then ongoing rehabilitation, which can take months or years.”

The UAE, he said, had taken significant steps to reduce injuries and casualities, but he believed that ensuring every passenger was strapped into a seat belt would make a big difference.

“The staff go to too many accidents where the child has been propelled out of the car and is killed,” Mr Ball said. “Then there are the cases where a child is crushed by a parent who is letting them sit on their lap.”

To change drivers’ attitudes on the region’s roads, Thomas Edelmann, founder of the website Road Safety UAE, said showing the human cost of dangerous driving would force people to rethink their actions behind the wheel.

“To change the driving culture for the better, we must ‘touch’ the traffic participants,” he said. “That means we must further improve the way we spread educational messages.”

Mr Edelmann said young drivers, unfortunately, were often the ones involved in traffic incidents.

“In the first nine months of 2015, according to the Ministry of Interior, 63 per cent of accidents go on their account, as well as 34 per cent of all deaths,” he said.

“Hence, touching educational messages, like using stories of ‘one of them’ can certainly be an effective way to communicate with the young driver.

“This has also worked well in other countries.”