UAE: Running late cited as main reason for road accidents

80% of motorists start their journey late, reveals new study

Photo: File

Waheed Abbas

Published: Mon 13 Dec 2021, 11:56 AM

Last updated: Thu 26 Jan 2023, 4:34 PM

The majority (80%) of the motorists in the UAE start their journey late and 'running late' is one of the major reasons for reckless driving and road accidents in the country, revealed a new study released on Monday.

Conducted by RoadSafetyUAE and car manufacturer Volkswagen, the study found that 80 per cent of the motorists running late are more likely to speed and 59 per cent of them are more likely to tailgate in order to reach their destination.

“The simple fact of ‘running late’ has such a detrimental effect on our safety, that we had the urge to understand more about it," said Thomas Edelmann, founder and managing director of RoadSafetyUAE.

Authorities in the UAE and each emirate run multiple road safety campaigns throughout the year for the safety of the motorists and pedestrians.

“Safety is, and will always be, our top priority. Therefore, we feel that, beyond producing cars with the latest technology on active and passive safety features, our responsibility is also to make drivers aware of the importance of safe driving and helping them to achieve it,” said Victor Dalmau, managing director at Volkswagen Middle East.

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The survey’s findings further revealed that 50 per cent of UAE motorists running late show less consideration to other road users and a similar percentage of drivers running late are more likely to drive distracted.

It was also revealed that both males and females both start their trips equally late, but males have a significantly higher tendency to consequently display forms of reckless driving.

The young drivers aged 18-34 years show the highest values of misbehaviour in the categories of running late, speeding, tailgating, less consideration to others and distracted driving.

The same applies to the segment of Emirati motorists.

How to fix it

The majority of survey respondents – 82 per cent – in the UAE believe that leaving 10 minutes early mean motorists will drive more safely.

While 57 per cent think arriving early benefits them by 'being calmer / less stressed' and 56 per cent think arriving early gives them time to be prepared before their meeting.

“It is absolutely not rocket science, and motorists themselves do understand the power of the ‘easy fix’! A staggering 82 per cent think that ‘starting early’ would mean more safety! Motorists also clearly understand the benefits of ‘arriving early’”, said Edelman.

He stressed that motorists must reflect on this single root cause of ‘running late’ which causes so much pain on the roads.

“It is so easy and it does not cost anything. We would like to see all involved stakeholders like governmental entities, the media, corporations and the education sector to focus on awareness-creating initiatives around ‘Start your road trip early!’” he added.