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Dh250,000 device to race on roads

The General Department of Traffic of the Dubai Police seized a car fitted with a speeding device worth Dh250,000 and another, which had the body modified with unsafe materials.

According to Major-General Mohammed Saif Al Zafin, Director of the department, both the drivers were arrested for posing the lives of road users at risk.

He said that the traffic police teams, assigned to follow-up reckless drivers, have seized 120 vehicles and registered 1,700 violations during the nights of Ramadan. Al Zafin also said that 22 drivers of the seized cars were involved in 12 races.

The official said that the police noticed a vehicle driving at a very high speed near Al Khawaneej Roundabout, racing with another vehicle, and tried to stop it when it reached a bump. However, the Emirati driver of the vehicle sped away to Al Mizhar area. He switched off the lights of the vehicle and entered a house in the area, Al Zafin said.

When the police followed him and knocked on the door of the house, a person came out and said it was his father’s house and he did not know whom the car belonged to. He told the police that he didn’t let any vehicle in, but found the gates open. In the garage, the police found the car with the driver hiding inside it. The house owner asked the police to take the vehicle though he didn’t register a complaint against the driver who trespassed into his premises.

The police found that the vehicle was fitted with special speeding devices, extra fuel tanks and gas cylinders. The engine and the structure of the vehicle also were modified, the official said.

The driver told the police that the additional fuel tanks were filled with jet fuel, which was used to increase the speed. He admitted that he had installed speeding devices at a cost of Dh250,000 and claimed that his friends had paid more money to install similar devices.

Al Zafin said that he ordered the police teams to refer the driver to the Dubai Traffic Prosecution as he had violated many traffic rules. Many garages are involved in doing such amendments and sometimes they do it for free to attract new customers, he added.

Many of the arrested drivers had done modifications on their vehicles and had installed speeding devices in violation of the law. One among them drove his vehicle in a risky way and jumped many traffic signals in Al Qusais area, he added.

Another vehicle seized by the police was spotted when it was travelling on Khawaneej Road, in the direction the University City Street, creating loud noise. The car was moving very fast and thus the police didn’t intervene to stop it, fearing that the driver might act crazy and put others’ life at risk. The vehicle did not have a number plate, Al Zafin said, adding that the police patrols dealt with the case calmly and followed the vehicle without being noticed. When the vehicle stopped in front of a house and the driver entered there, the police followed him. The vehicle was seized and the driver was arrested for driving in a way endangering others’ lives.

The vehicle was fitted with speeding devices and modifications were made in the engine and the structure of it. Rear seats of were removed and the doors were made with aluminium to let it run fast. Al Zafin said the car was unsafe to drive on Dubai roads and it could have endangered the lives of the passengers and other the road users.

news@khaleejtimes.com

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