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40pc Al Ain accident victims are nationals

It proved that more active intervention and enforcement are needed to control the problem.

The study that was conducted by Dr Mohammed El Sadig, Department of Community Medicine; Dr Yasser Hawas, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Dr Suleiman Ashur, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the UAE University; and Wajeeh Shajarawee, Department of Traffic Police, Al Ain Police Directorate; has shown that most crashes (50 per cent) occurred between 6am and 12noon, while 28 per cent occurred between midnight and 6am.

As high rates of serious MVC have been reported in the UAE in recent years, the research aims to determine the prevalence of morbidity and mortality from MVCs in Al Ain. Data sources were Al Ain Traffic Police reports on RTA deaths and injuries, during January-December 2005.

The study aims to determine the prevalence of morbidity and mortality from MVCs, their likely causal factors and mechanisms in Al Ain district during the year 2005 and to determine what safety measures could be elaborated for preventive purposes.

The study reveals that the main age of casualties was 31 years; and mostly males (97 per cent).

“Casualties involving nationals were 40 per cent, followed by Asians 35 per cent, GCC citizens 6 per cent and Arabs of other nationalities 11.4 per cent,” says the study.

Rollovers were 22 per cent, side angle collisions 16 per cent and collisions with fixed objects were 16 per cent, it says, adding that most traumatic crashes (24 per cent) occurred in residential areas, 23 per cent of the accidents occurred at highways and 21 per cent in commercial centres.

According to the up-to-date study, minor injuries were 16 per cent, moderate injuries 59 per cent, serious injuries 12 per cent and fatal injuries were 13 per cent. About 71 per cent of the casualties were attended to by the Ministry of Health or Police Ambulance.

Sudden diversion, inexperience and tyre burst were the main MVC causes reported by the police.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently revealed that nearly three million deaths occurred each year globally from injury, poisoning and burns throughout the last decade; over two million of these were in developing countries. Moreover, it showed that, worldwide up to one-third of all hospital admissions resulted from injuries and almost 60 per cent of these were due to motor vehicle crashes.

According to the data, the annual economic costs of MVC injuries, lost productivity of workers and medical and social costs were estimated to exceed $500 billion worldwide.

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