About 50 road accidents were recorded in 20 minutes in Dubai on Monday morning by the official Dubai Police app. A map overview of the emirate displayed a swamp of purple icons indicating collisions across the city. Severe congestions were also reported on key arterial roads in the city.
At 9am on Monday, the map in the Dubai Police app displayed numerous accidents across the emirate. When Khaleej Times counted the incidents, the number stood at fifty in just twenty minutes. See the map below:
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When compiling this report, Dubai Police alerted motorists on their X account of two major accidents. Congestion on Hessa Street, opposite the Saudi German Hospital, heading to Sheikh Zayed Road, has been reported due to an accident. Residents have been urged to use alternate routes.
Another accident on Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road, opposite International City, heading towards the Emirate of Sharjah is also obstructing traffic. Watch the accident video below.
Alleviating traffic woes
Dubai is constantly carrying out road improvement projects to alleviate traffic woes and slash travel time between emirates.
A new bridge from Sheikh Zayed Road to Dubai Harbour will slash travel time to the from 12 minutes to three. The 1,500-metre bridge will have two lanes in each direction and will provide free traffic flow to and from Dubai Harbour.
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority recently completed a road improvement project that will improve traffic flow. The Algeria Street Improvement Project stretches 2 km from the intersection of Algeria Street and Al Khawaneej Street (South) to the intersection of Tunis Street (North) at Al Muhaisnah (1) and Al Mizhar (1).
Dubai Police is preparing to launch a new artificial intelligence powered system that will make reporting road accidents easier. The technique will also determine who was at fault in an accident, saving time and resources for the police. It will approximately reduce 50% of manual tasks and processes.
The system provides an easy way for drivers to report road accidents. When someone is involved in an accident, they can submit the data along with photographs on the Dubai police app.
Dangerous practice
More than 35,000 drivers were caught using their mobile phones behind the wheel in the first eight months of 2023. This dangerous practice has led to 99 accidents, resulting in the death of six people and injury to 58 others, the Dubai Police revealed. A Dh800 fine and four black points shall be imposed on drivers caught using phones on the road.
It was also revealed that eight people were killed and 339 more were injured in run-over accidents in 2023, as people crossed the roads from undesignated places.
The month of September last year saw the most number of jaywalkers caught by Dubai Police at 4,591, followed by May with 4,252 violations; then October at 4,239; and August at 4,169.