NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
UAE roads are among the most deadly: UN
NEW YORK - JUNE 16: UN health chiefs have urged the Government to tighten motoring laws after a report that ranks the UAE’s roads as among the deadliest in the world.
The Global Status Report on Road Safety, released on Monday by the World Health Organisation (WHO), shows that UAE road users are almost seven times more likely to be killed than those in Britain.
The report reveals that 37.1 people were killed on roads in the Emirates for every 100,000 people in 2007, the latest year for which UAE statistics are available – a dismal record that is worse even than poor-performers in the developing world such as Sudan, Tanzania and Chad.
Dr Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director general, said the poor safety record of the Emirates, like many of its neighbours, “deserves our highest attention” and called on officials to take action.
“The United Arab Emirates has a death rate, per 100,000 population, of 37.1,” said Tami Toroyan, a WHO technical officer. “Compare this to the UK for example, which is 5.4, and the figure is extremely high.
“Even compared to the global average of 18.8, it is really high. It is a dangerous place to be on the roads – either as a pedestrian or a driver, and there needs to be more focus on vulnerable road users.”
The number of vulnerable road users being killed was worryingly high, with pedestrians constituting 28 per cent of casualties and motorbike riders and cyclists making up another two per cent, she said.
A lack of bridges, road crossings and cycle paths puts pedestrians and cyclists – who often rank among “the poorer parts of the population” – at greater danger, added the official.
“They have good cars and good roads in the UAE – but there’s a lack of priority for pedestrians and cyclists,” said Ms Toroyan, who noted that pedestrians often had “to dodge their way through several lanes of fast traffic” when crossing highways.
The Government should slash urban road speed limits from 60km/h to 50km/h and toughen drink-driving rules by halving the permitted blood alcohol content limit, which is currently 0.1 grams per decilitre, she said.
Seat-belt laws are not stringent enough because there is no obligation on back-seat passengers to buckle-up, while only 61 per cent of those in the front-seats obey the law and wear the devices, she added.
“If you’ve only got 61 per cent of your front seat occupants wearing seat belts, we are presuming that there’s a much smaller rate of those in the rear seats, since there’s no law,” she said.
“The laws need to be revised and amended to what we call good practice.”
The 287-page report said 86 per cent of the 1,754,420 vehicles registered in the UAE in 2007 were motor cars, with trucks (seven per cent), minibuses and vans (two per cent) and buses (two per cent) making up most of the remainder.
The police recorded 1,056 fatal and 11,155 non-fatal accidents in the same year, although casualty figures were probably much higher because of deaths occurring away from crash scenes. Men make up 87 per cent of casualties and women 13 per cent.
The UAE is the worst performer in the region, with significantly more road deaths per head of population than Bahrain (12.1 per 100,000), Kuwait (16.9 per 100,000), Oman (21.3 per 100,000), Qatar (23.7 per 100,000), Saudi Arabia (29 per 100,000) and even Yemen (29.3 per 100,000).
Only a small number of countries studied in the report, which covers 178 nations and more than 98 per cent of the world’s population, have a worse record, including Angola (37.7 deaths per 100,000 people), Eritrea (48.4) and Libya (40.5).
The first global assessment of road safety found that pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists made up almost half the estimated 1.27 million killed each year on roads around the world.
“We found that in many countries, the laws necessary to protect people are either not in place or are not comprehensive. And even when there is adequate legislation, most countries report that their enforcement is low,” said Dr Chan.
“We are not giving sufficient attention to the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists many of whom end up in clinics and hospitals. We must do better if we are to halt or reverse the rise in road traffic injuries, disability and deaths.”
Where your money goes
Abu Dhabi households spent an average of Dh135,300 on basic needs last year, much of it on rent, according to government statistics. Emiratis alone spent more than twice that amount and “collective households” less than half.
Abu DHABI - JUNE 16: Households in the emirate spent an average of Dh135,300 (US$36,800) per year on basic needs, including accommodation, food and school fees in 2007 and 2008, according to government statistics.
But the level of expenditure today could be as much as 13 per cent more, or Dh152,900 per year, taking into account the Ministry of Economy’s official inflation figures for the period since the raw data was compiled.
The report, from the newly formed Statistics Centre – Abu Dhabi, divided the emirate’s population into three groups: Emiratis, who spent Dh305,500 per household in 2007-2008; middle-class expatriate households, which spent Dh106,400 per year; and “collective households”, which spent just Dh47,500 per year.
Although not specifically defined in the report, “collective households” appears to refer to lower income residents in shared accommodation.
Rent was by far the largest expense for all residents irrespective of nationality, eating up an average of 37.7 per cent of the total, with “transport and telecoms” constituting 17.9 per cent of expenditure and food and drink 16.4 per cent.
But the statistics centre did not include savings in its survey, which is the first of its kind to have been carried out in the emirate.
The results also underlined the great variety in lifestyles among the emirate’s population, with the lowest-spending 20 per cent of residents accounting for just 6.4 per cent of the total expenditure and the top 20 per cent of spenders accounting for 42.7 per cent.
The survey included a breakdown by region, which shows that Emiratis and middle-class expatriates in Abu Dhabi and Al Gharbia spend up to twice as much per capita as their counterparts in Al Ain or in the areas surrounding Al Ain and Abu Dhabi.
No one at the statistics centre was available for comment on the report. But Omar Said and Ahmad Ali, both Emirati government employees in Abu Dhabi, said the spending patterns of Emiratis could vary wildly according to “social status and commitments”.
“It depends on whether he is married or not and whether he lives inside Abu Dhabi or outside,” said Mr Said, 28, who is married with two children. “It also depends on the wife. Some of them like to spend and some don’t. If they do, you have to spend, otherwise they think you’re stingy.
“It is difficult to have one fixed annual budget; it does not work for us. Foreigners can do that, but we have commitments to others. Everyone likes to save but it’s difficult here.”
Mr Ali, 25, who is single, said he and his peers felt they had to follow trends to get respect.
“Restaurants, for example, are trendy now,” he said. “If you don’t go to restaurants, you’re not respected enough. And the restaurant should be five stars, and the bill should be between Dh200 to Dh700. That is twice a week, on average.
“People need to change their cars. I renew my car every five years but this is just because I am too grown up for extravagance. Younger people change their cars every year because it is the trend.”
Some young Emiratis spend Dh3,000 on their sunglasses and up to Dh25,000 on mobile phones, Mr Ali said.
“Have you seen an Emirati with less than three mobiles?” he said.
“Every bill is around Dh2,000. Some buy a new mobile every month. Also, car monthly instalment is Dh3,000 to Dh4,000. A new khandoura costs Dh1,500, and that is for a new one every month. Shoes cost Dh1,500, with a new pair every three months. And travel to a country in the region would cost at least Dh60,000 for the trip.”
Sandy Wilson, an American housewife whose husband works at the US embassy, said she and her husband spent most of their money on food and drink and travel, but saved money because the embassy covered the couple’s accommodation costs and because she did her shopping online.
“Our budget is mostly spent on food and drink,” she said. “I barely spend anything in Abu Dhabi, I do most of my shopping online because it is cheaper than the prices here. I don’t buy clothing or books here.
“Our excess money is spent on travel. We want to see this part of the world. We’re not saving a lot; we’re travelling a lot.”
Remedios Paredes, a widowed Filipina nurse working at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, also has employer-provided accommodation for herself and her three children.
But she is struggling to make ends meet after paying a total of Dh40,500 in tuition fees for her children as well as food and drink and medical expenses for sick relatives in the Philippines, all of which must come from a monthly wage of Dh8,300.
“When I came here in 2000, I would spend Dh500 for food and the trolley would overflow,” she said. “Now I can only buy milk and water and bread. Now Dh100 is like Dh10.”
Mrs Paredes said she planned to send her children back to the Philippines to be educated because she could not meet the rising costs here.
“I cannot pay any more,” she said. “My children ask for clothes for programmes, and money for projects at school. I don’t have money, so I’m only using my credit card. Even the taxi prices have risen.”
Tough new safety regime for camps
RAS AL KHAIMAH - JUNE 16: The Civil Defence department has promised to carry out surprise daily inspections at labour camps, fining and even closing companies that do not meet safety standards.
Mohammad al Zaabi, the new director of Civil Defence in RAK, was speaking after the fire on Saturday at a Strabag labour camp in Digdaga, in which 32 cabins were destroyed and nearly 200 men lost their belongings and savings.
He said he would train more inspection teams to ensure that no part of the emirate was overlooked.
“Cabins must be spaced properly, circuits should not be overloaded and cooking areas must be separated,” he said.
Airconditioning units must be in good condition and electricity should be switched off when not being used.
Companies would be given one warning before they were reported to the Ministry of Labour.
Inspections would be unannounced and violators risked having their businesses closed down.
He said the greatest challenge for Civil Defence was monitoring the growing number of camps that had not registered with the Federal Electricity and Water Authority.
Labour camps require a letter of approval from Civil Defence before they receive electricity. However, many operate on generators, which enable them to bypass mandatory inspections and ignore basic safety requirements.
To assist employers, Mr al Zaabi said Civil Defence was offering inexpensive one week courses in fire prevention.
“Fires start small,” said Lt Col Dr Jassim al Modareb, the department’s director of operations. “If people know fire protection they will be safe.”
Camps should ensure fire alarms were fitted in all accommodation cabins and training should be mandatory, he added.
Civil Defence employees welcomed the new strategy. But many believed it would take a complete overhaul to improve labour camp safety.
“They make cabins from wood, they don’t have fire extinguishers, they don’t have basic rules for safety,” said one employee.
“We are really co-operating with companies,” said another employee. But he added that if the situation did not change, workers “will get hurt – be sure of that”.
“If we go back three years ago, we didn’t have construction like now,” the Civil Defence worker said. “But now we have big camps and some of the camps are really far from Civil Defence.
“Yesterday in Showkah [in the south of the emirate] we inspected a labour camp of 96 cabins.
“It was more than an hour and a half from here and maybe more than 70km from the nearest Civil Defence station.”
There are only two fire stations in Ras al Khaimah, one in the city centre and one in the north of the emirate. A third, in Kadra, an hour south of the city, will open next month.
Saturday’s blaze was the third serious fire at a labour camp in the emirate in five weeks. In May, four cabins were destroyed after an electrical short-circuit sparked a fire at a city construction site, then three weeks later a blaze in Shimal razed six cabins.
A Strabag spokesman who works at the Digdaga camp said many labourers had reached the end of their contracts and were only days from returning home with their savings, which they had kept in their cabins. Some lost thousands of dirhams that they had saved from months of labour on the new Al Naeem Mall.
“The feeling here is very bad,” said the spokesman. “Some were crying. They have lost everything.”
He said company had given the men financial assistance, and more would be provided once when the total losses were known.