By Shafaat Shahbandari, Staff Reporter www.gulfnews.com
Dubai: More than 52,000 drivers were fined in Dubai between January and November 2015 for tailgating which was blamed for hundreds of accidents, Dubai Police said.
Tailgating is among the two most common causes of serious accidents, claiming 37 lives in Dubai since early 2014.
Between January and September, the police recorded 435 accidents caused by tailgating, leading to 25 fatalities in the first nine months of this year, the highest among all causes of accidents in that period.
The practice is rampant on UAE highways, with aggressive motorists driving at high speed while flashing headlights to push cars out of the fast lane. In 2014, Dubai Traffic Police issued 69,964 fines to people for not leaving a safe distance between vehicles on Dubai roads.
Colonel Saif Muhair Al Mazroui, Director of Dubai Traffic Police, said that tailgating is one of the top three reasons for accidents on Dubai roads.
“People do not understand the consequences of tailgating. If there is no safe distance between the vehicles, the driver won’t have enough time to apply the brakes to avoid collision,” he said.
Dubai Police recently announced a fine of Dh400 for each instance of tailgating caught by the new tube-shaped roadside radars. More info
