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Dubai: Private companies will be involved in attending to accidents on Dubai roads and minimise the time taken to clear roads, Gulf News has learnt.
The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is considering involving private roadside assistance companies to help the RTA immediately tow away vehicles involved in accidents.
Studies by the RTA have shown that the sudden breakdown of a vehicle or a minor accident that actually needs only five minutes to clear the vehicle from the spot currently needs at least 40 minutes to remove the vehicle and normalise traffic movement.
While non-injury and minor accidents will be handled by the private companies, police will continue to attend to accidents resulting in injuries or deaths.
Implementation strategy
"The move comes as part of the RTA's plan to introduce a new system to minimise accident handling time," an RTA official said.
However, he said the plan has not yet been approved because the authority is currently working on its implementation strategies. According to the studies, 243,386 accidents were recorded in Dubai last year. It means 666.8 accidents per day and 27.7 accidents per hour. Of them, more than 2,000 were dangerous, involving injuries or deaths.
This means that one accident creates a traffic jam almost every two minutes in Dubai. Traffic jams caused an estimated loss of Dh4.5 billion annually, while the cost of accidents stood at around Dh400 million.
Your comments
Whatever the RTA and the Dubai Police do accidents will not be reduced. The only thing we can do to reduce accidents is maintain discipline. One more thing. Do not stop and look at the accident because it is not helping the traffic.
Alvin
Dubai,UAE
Posted: November 10, 2007, 09:23
The plan to clear the roads after accidents is very good. Most people get hypertense when in a road block.
Sirajudeen
Dubai,UAE
Posted: November 08, 2007, 08:44
Having lived in Dubai since childhood, I always found that Dubai Police the best in the world when it comes to service and commitment to society. The RTA might make things worse after seeing what happened with Salik.
Nadir
Dubai,UAE
Posted: October 15, 2007, 15:07
The RTA has always done things first and thought later. Kudos to their management and their style of planning.
Mohammed
Dubai,UAE
Posted: October 15, 2007, 11:29
Well, I think it is better for the RTA to find out a solution to reduce the accidents before they try to clear them faster.
William
Dubai,UAE
Posted: October 15, 2007, 09:03
Now they think about this? As I said earlier, the RTA lacks the proper planning for their projects.
Wissam
Abu Dhabi,UAE
Posted: October 15, 2007, 08:15
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