In an attempt to prevent road accidents and reduce its impact on lives and properties, different government entities in the UAE have launched initiatives and awareness campaigns to lessen the impact of traffic fatalities. Some of these initiatives are:

Abu Dhabi strategic traffic safety plan

The Traffic and Patrols Directorate in Abu Dhabi has launched a road safety management plan, which aims at decreasing traffic accidents' fatalities to 3 per cent per 100,000 inhabitants by 2021. Measures to improve road safety encompass the framework frequently applied in accident prevention work, which contains four elements:

• enforcement
• education
• engineering
• emergency medical services.

Road safety audit

DoT of Abu Dhabi introduced a road safety audit  to be completed for all new highway projects; this audit would cover the phases of design, construction and post-construction. The purpose of the audit is to identify road safety problems and to suggest measures to eliminate or mitigate any concerns.

Road safety awareness

Road safety awareness was a programme launched by DOT of Abu Dhabi, which focuses on drivers, riders and pedestrians. The programme targets educating children and adolescents as future road users and drivers.

Central traffic control system 'SCOOT'

'SCOOT' is a central traffic control system installed with sensors counting the volume of vehicles at signals to improve traffic flow at main junctions. The sensors will detect the flow, the number of cars on each approach and the cruise speed or the average speed towards a traffic signal. This new adaptive traffic control system is used in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Speed management strategy of the emirate of Abu Dhabi

DoT of Abu Dhabi launched the speed management strategy of the emirate of Abu Dhabi with the objectives of:

• reducing road crash fatalities and injuries in the emirate of Abu Dhabi
• facilitating the safe and efficient movement of people whilst protecting and enhancing quality of life.

The strategy covers six major components:

• assessing the speeding problem
• engineering
• laws/legislation
• education and awareness
• enforcement
• stakeholder coordination.

RTA Dubai strategic plan 2014-2018

RTA launched its strategic plan 2014-2018 (PDF, 100 KB)  to act as a major support to the overall development drive in the UAE and the emirate of Dubai, as well as being a driving force to improve performance that contributes to serving the country, its citizens and residents.

The strategy has eight goals:

• Smart Dubai
• Integrated Dubai
• People's happiness
• Smooth transport for all
• Safety and environmental sustainability
• Financial sustainability
• Advanced RTA
• Assets Sustainability

Dubai traffic safety strategy

Dubai traffic safety strategy is set to establish a challenging record of reducing fatalities to 1.5 for every 100,000 of the population in Dubai by 2021.

The strategy is based on four agendas:

• improving motorists' driving habits
• inspecting vehicles for traffic safety regulations and for criminal safety procedures
• inspecting motorists' records
• traffic awareness campaigns.

Haseb

In 2008, Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) launched a major safety campaign that will go for life under the slogan Haseb (take care in Arabic). The campaign highlights safety issues on roads, in transportation, at construction sites, at sea and other safety behaviours.

Based on accident statistics of 2007, the campaign recognises seven key causes of road accidents, which include excessive speeding, use of handheld mobile phones, fatigue, not keeping enough distances between vehicles, not wearing seatbelts, lack of lane discipline and jumping red signals.

Useful links for road and traffic safety:

• Traffic safety for school students - Ministry of Interior 
• Traffic and road legislations - RTA Dubai
• RTA adopts advanced method to detect and rectify traffic black points - WAM.