Source : The National

ABU DHABI - OCT 18: The number of taxi accidents in the capital has dropped by about one-fifth in the months since authorities began handing out automatic fines to drivers, according to Saeed, the company that responds to and processes minor accidents.

Saeed, which began enforcing the Dh500 (US$140) fine in May, said the measure had reduced taxi accidents by 15 to 20 per cent, but could not provide the exact number of accidents.

Ibrahim Ramel, president of Saeed, estimated that the accidents caused by taxi drivers made up almost one-third of all road accidents in the capital last year. He attributed the decline to a change in the driving behaviour of taxi drivers. He believes they have become more cautious as a result of the fines.

“After the new traffic system was imposed,” he said, “taxi drivers started feeling the burden of the fines, so they started driving better and following the rules.”

Huda al Kaabi, a senior communications officer for TransAD, the agency that oversees public transport in Abu Dhabi, said most drivers blamed passengers for their accidents.

Passengers, she said, fail to inform drivers in advance of their exact location and suddenly ask them to turn left, for example. But definitely, she said, it is the driver who would be punished. “They are not supposed to obey instructions that would put their lives, and the lives of those on the road, in danger,” she said.

The TransAd driver affairs office, which deals with comments from the public about driving skills, frequently receives complaints about “wrong behaviour” of taxi drivers.

The drivers say in their defence that they are under great pressure from passengers. Each driver has a record at the office, and this record helps to verify whether a comment about a driver is accurate or not.

“The driver’s priority should be the safety of everyone, not following the instructions of the passengers,” Ms al Kaabi said.

Failure to drive in a “safe, courteous and careful manner” is an offence subject to the Dh500 fine and three black points. If repeated, the fine is Dh1,000.

Among the punishable offences are stopping suddenly and cutting across multiple lanes of traffic.

Lt Col Ahmad al Shehhi, director of the capital’s traffic police, said taxi drivers should be aware of the rules more than anyone else and should ignore instructions that are dangerous.

“Some drivers have been driving for the past 20 years,” he said. “They know the laws very well and know the consequences of not obeying the rules.”

“Also, police and traffic officials are constantly spreading awareness to all the drivers on the road about the laws and penalties, and every motorist or taxi driver involved in an accident is briefed on his or her mistake before receiving a fine.”

Agel Mohammed, a 31-year-old driver from Pakistan, said an “intimidating” passenger pushed him to swerve from the third lane to stop at the first parking spot.

When he passed the car in the second lane, he did not realise there was another car in the first lane trying to overtake it.

“Alhamdulillah, there wasn’t an accident, but this kind of scenario always happens. I always tell them ‘patience, patience’ but they just shout.”

He said customers call TransAD or taxi companies and complain about drivers’ abilities, but do not take responsibility for the pressure they put on the drivers.

“When I stop at a traffic signal just after it turns red, they would most of the time think I did it intentionally,” he said.

“They think I could somehow just pick them up, drive and stop – three moves.”

Abdulmalik Hussain, a 28-year-old Pakistani driver, said he always tried to drive safely and but that passengers had pushed him into a few minor accidents.

He said his advice to passengers was to think ahead and tell him in advance where and when to stop.

“Don’t speak on the mobile all the time and then all of a sudden say ‘here, here’,” he said.

Abdulla Moustafa, a 32-year-old researcher from Jordan, said that when taxi drivers ignored traffic rules and drove recklessly, they did it out of “greed” – to get more passengers – and “indifference” to other motorists on the road.

He said these practices, which were responsible for a lot of accidents, boiled down to a lack of respect for the law.