NEWS FROM UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
Road safety fears after fines are cut in half
A speed radar keeps a watchful eye over the traffic. Police said they reduced the speeding fines out of ‘sympathy’ for drivers.
ABU DHABI - JULY 01: A decision to cut speeding fines by half could undermine road safety efforts in the Abu Dhabi, campaigners said yesterday.
Police announced on Tuesday that all fines, including penalties already imposed as well as new ones, would be halved for an “indefinite period”.
Police said they had extended opening hours at fine payment centres across the emirate from 7am until midnight to handle the crush of people descending on traffic departments to take advantage of the reprieve.
But safety campaigners were less enthusiastic.
“When we are teaching road safety, we are teaching consequences,” said Roly Hermans, of Educating Global, the consultancy behind the road safety curriculum for schoolchildren in Abu Dhabi.
“The most important consequences are injuries and death, but there are legal consequences, and you have really got to be careful about watering them down.”
More than 3,900 people lined up to pay outside three branches in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, with queues forming in the early morning as motorists took advantage of the half price offer on what were, for most motorists, relatively small fees of about Dh500.
“Of course I am happy because before, the fee was Dh900,” said Shaheen Anifa, 23, a bottled water salesman from Kerala, India.
“Now I can pay Dh450.”
Standing at the end of the queue at 2.30pm, Mr Anifa said he had been waiting for more than two hours.
Higher fines were introduced across the country in March 2008, along with a black points system that can cost motorists their licence if they amass 24 points because of reckless driving.
Police said they were reducing the cost of fines out of “sympathy” for drivers, some of whom owe tens of thousands of dirhams in traffic fines.
A police spokesman said yesterday that the move was intended to help clear a backlog of unpaid fines in the hope that a cost cut would encourage people to pay.
The news was welcomed by most motorists, but many who had recently paid said they were annoyed that the reprieve had not been given earlier.
Others said it would help save time as, in the past, they been forced to go to court to secure a reduction.
“A month ago, my cousin was shocked when he found out that his fines have reached up to Dh40,000,” said Mohamed al Amrei, 24, an Emirati who works in forensics.
“We went to the traffic court to get it reduced, and after waiting three weeks we got it down to Dh21,000.”
Mr al Amrei said that, while it was important to observe traffic laws, he would welcome a service whereby motorists were reminded of the total debt they were building up in fines.
“I think we should be careful not to break traffic laws,” he said.
“But it would also be helpful if we could get a warning via SMS if our fines exceed a certain high limit, so we do not get shocked at the end of the year when we go to renew our licences.”
Many motorists said yesterday that they seldom paid their fines unless they had business that required going in person to the traffic department, for instance to renew their vehicle registration, or sell a car.
Simon Labbett, the regional director of traffic safety consultants the Transport Research Laboratory, said the imposition of penalties was undermined by the time lag between motorists committing a traffic offence and paying the fine.
“I would like some incentive to get drivers to pay, both to be aware and to avoid these big bills being accrued,” he said.
“Otherwise it is not instilling that behavioural change. We are not maximising on the ability to influence driver behaviour, which is why the rules of the road have been established.”
Driver ‘fined’ Dh 20,000 by bogus policeman who drove off in victim's car
AJMAN 0 JUL 01: Police have charged five men with impersonating police officers in Ajman after dozens of people were tricked into handing over thousands of dirhams in fraudulent fines.
One person was “fined” Dh22,000 by a man posing as a police officer, who then drove away in his victim’s car, telling him that it had been confiscated.
The impersonator, who was dressed in a police uniform, gestured for the driver to pull over before telling him that he was driving in breach of traffic laws and that his car was on a wanted list.
The victim handed over the cash and was told to visit the police station to arrange for the return of the car.
However, when he arrived at the police station, he was told there was no record of the incident or his car being listed on any wanted list.
The case involving the five men, who are all aged between 30 and 40 and of Arab origin, has been referred to the Public Prosecution.
It follows a spate of similar cases in the emirate. In a similar incident, a man impersonating a policeman knocked on the door of an Ajman resident and told him that he had orders to impound his Toyota Land Cruiser parked in the street, before driving it away.
A third case involved two men posing as police arrived unannounced at a commercial building and told managers they were in breach of fire safety regulations. They then demanded the staff pay “fines”.
The most violent incident involved a man in police uniform visiting an accommodation block where workers were on strike before attacking a number of people and ordering them to return to work.
Police officials said there had been a 70 per cent drop in the number of reported incidents of civilians posing as law enforcement officers during the first six months of 2010, compared to the same period last year. They did not offer any explanation of how their strategy had differed to pervious years.
Five people have been arrested in such cases so far this year, down from 17 people in the first half of last year.
Col Sheikh Sultan bin Abdullah al Nuaimi, the deputy director of Ajman Police, said the issue continued to be a concern.
He said: “When you look at this year’s cases, it’s almost 70 per cent down. But what we want is a 100 per cent safety of residents and our team is continuing to work hard to eliminate this crime.”
In none of the recent cases did any of the men posing as police produce identification, said Col al Nuaimi.
One resident of Anjam Industrial Area, who wished to remain anonymous, said two men came to his property last year pretending to be police officers.
He said: “They wanted to search for some illegal items, but their actions, their confidence and the way they talked Arabic gave me the impression they were police.
“But a colleague insisted they show us identification papers and this is how we managed to have them arrested.”
Ahmed al Hanoori, an Emirati who owns a service uniform shop in Ajman’s industrial area, said anyone who wanted to buy a uniform must first show identification.
“For me, I have never sold a uniform to a non-policeman, but this is a free market economy, so there may be some shops that sell these uniforms,” he said.