Dubai, Nov 27 (Emirates 24 x 7): Dubai has toughened laws against speedsters, warning that those who exceed the road speed limit by 60 km will have their cars impounded immediately.
Dubai’s traffic police announced the new measure at the start of a new anti-speed campaign that involved the deployment of 14 new speed cameras known as jinn through the emirate’s roads in a bid to deter reckless drivers.
The campaign is part of the emirate’s strategy targeting zero deaths on roads by 2020 following a surge in accidents because of speed and other offences.
Police data showed excessive speed has been the cause of nearly 80 per cent of total road mishaps in Dubai and those aged between 18 and 30 years have caused around 70 per cent of the total road deaths. Most of the accident causers have been from the UAE, Pakistan and India.
“The Dubai traffic department has just deployed 14 new speed cameras and warned that motorists caught exceeding the road speed limit by 60 km their vehicles would be stopped and impounded immediately,” the Dubai-based Arabic language daily Emirat Alyoum said on Sunday.
The paper quoted Dubai’s deputy police chief Major General Khamis Al Muzainah as saying the campaign would continue until the end of the year and would cover all parts of the emirates mainly motorways.
Dubai traffic police chief Major General Mohammed Saif al Zafin said police would hunt for speedsters during the campaign, adding the emirate’s speed cameras had hunted a whopping 283,000 offences since the start of 2011, including more than 16,000 speed offences.
“Our short term target is to reduce road deaths to fewer than seven this month, equivalent to November last year…in October, 13 people were killed compared with 11 in October last year but the total death toll so far this year declined to 110 from 133 in the same period of last year,” he said.
“The present campaign will concentrate on motorways and those caught exceeding the defined speed limit by at least 60 km will have their cars seized instantly….drivers caught exceeding the limit by less than 60 km will be fined Dh900 and have eight black points added to their record.”