12 November 2009,
“This is precisely the kind of behaviour that we are trying to change,” said Kishore Vanguri , banging the dashboard for emphasis.
The senior environmental adviser for construction firm Wade Adams said that last year, over 500 deaths occurred on roads in the Jebel Ali area alone.
In a bid to educate its workers on the importance of road safety, Wade Adams invited traffic police to give presentation to each of the company’s four labour camps this week.
Sitting on blue plastic chairs, or standing sheepishly with tiffin tins in their hands, some 4,000 labourers gathered on Monday night to watch the presentation at the company’s second labour accommodation in Industrial Area 2.
“A lot of our staff are from rural areas and aren’t aware of how to cross the road when faced with high-speed traffic,” said Musharraf Khan, health and safety officer at Wade Adams.
Khan said that although the company has not had any of its 14,000 blue collar staff involved in road accidents, it wasn’t taking any precautions.
“We believe in looking after our staff, because every worker is valuable to us,” he said.
The multimedia presentation, which included audience participation, was held by two trainers from the General Department of Traffic at Dubai Police. The officials overcame the language barrier by giving the presentation in Hindi.
The trainers also displayed a series of shocking photographs and videos taken at the scene of road accidents across the world. During the display, a pall of silence descended on the audience.
At one point, a trainer called on labourers to use their brains when crossing the road. “But what use are your brains when they are scattered on the road,” he said, gesturing to a particularly graphic image on the screen.