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Dubai Ambulance watches over deadly neighbourhood

A once quiet neighbourhood Al Warqa has now turned deadly, with dozens of car accidents happening each month.

The neighbourhood around the Al Warqa roundabout, which has become a popular place for stunt drivers to congregate and perform tricks on the sand, reportedly saw 34 accidents in just one month, between mid-November and mid-December, leaving three people dead and another 44 injured.

So frequent have the accidents become, that the unprecedented rise has prompted the Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services (DCAS) to provide well-equipped four wheel drive vehicles nearby, ready to swing into action and reach the incident site as fast as possible.

“The neighbourhood, which youth and families flock to for good time and entertainment, especially on holidays, has seen many reports and calls for ambulances”, said Khalifa bin Deri, Executive Director of DCAS, noting that these ranged from brawls and pedestrians being run over by vehicles or motorbikes to fires and cars flipping over in sandy areas, while there were numerous motorbike and bicycle accidents as well.

The accidents all took place in almost one place, the Al Warqa roundabout.

Of the 44 sustained injuries, 28 were minor, nine were moderate and four were serious, bin Deri said. Three people dying in separate accidents in just one area was a very large number for a neighbourhood, he said.

Al Warqa has become a densely-populated area, with thousands of people from inside and outside Dubai flocking to it despite the small space, he said. Adventurous youths, looking to engage in different hobbies, have made the neighbourhood a busy place with uncertainties. That spurred DCAS, armed with its four wheel drive vehicles, to be on alert, and cope with any eventuality, he said.

news@khaleejtimes.com