Over 7500 Drivers Fined in Abu Dhabi in Two Months
- Abu Dhabi Police fined more than 7500 drivers and passengers without seatbelts, in July and August 2017
- Since 1st July, a total of 7592 drivers were handed an AED 400 penalty and were hit with four black points on their licence
- Seat belt fines are solely fined through traffic control police patrolling the streets – unlike other offenses which can be caught by cameras
- Between July and August 2016, 12000 drivers were caught for not wearing seatbelts, which is nearly twice as much as the number in 2017
- Seatbelts were made mandatory for all passengers in a vehicle in UAE
- UAE has a goal of decreasing the number of fatalities from the current rate of 6.1/100,000 residents to 3/100,000 by 2021, as part of UAE Vision 2021
- Figures released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed that wearing a seatbelt reduces risks of road deaths for front seat passengers by 40-50%
- Deaths for back seat passengers can be cut down by 25-75% if they are wearing seatbelts, according to WHO
- According to a research project carried out by RoadSafetyUAE in February 2017, only 78% of drivers, 71% of front seat passengers and only 11% of back-seat passengers always wear seatbelts
