Yahoo News 
Pedestrians in firing line as cops reveal deadly extent of jaywalking
A senior Dubai Police official has declared 80 per cent of the city’s pedestrians do not have the knowledge to cross a road safely as it was revealed 11 people have died trying already in 2014.
Brigadier Saif Muhair Al Mazroui, deputy director of Dubai Traffic Police, slammed pedestrians for jaywalking, in spite of extensive police educational campaigns aimed at instilling common sense on how to get across highways.
Dubai Police said that in the first three months of this year they have recorded 24,085 offences involving people crossing roads from unauthorised places. They
recorded 59,212 incidents in the whole of 2013.
“It’s a high figure and shows that people don’t care about their lives,” said Al Mazroui. “Many people climb over the cement blocks or the fences on the pavements between the two lanes, despite there being authorised places and bridges to cross the roads just metres away.
“People don’t care and don’t know about safe crossing and 80 per cent of Dubai pedestrians don’t have enough education for crossing the roads.”
In 2013, 46 pedestrians were killed in 2,947 accidents involving pedestrians in Dubai, with a further 340 injured. In the first three months of 2014, there have been 11 fatalities – an average of one a week – from 362 accidents involving 94 pedestrians.
Al Mazroui, said that his department had cooperated with the Labour Ministry on a campaign called ‘Safe Cross’. The aim is to reduce the number of pedestrian accidents by spreading awareness among labourers and other road users as part of the Dubai Police strategy to reach zero deaths by 2020.
Al Mazroui said: “We are doing our best to educate pedestrians and held many educational sessions in recent years, with about 600,000 labourers involved.”
He said police were planning to hold sessions with companies, to be conducted in Arabic, English and Urdu.
“We witnessed many pedestrians crossing roads despite having a bridge or crossing area near them, but they prefer to cross from their spot. It is dangerous behaviour and is causing death every day especially in Al Quoz industrial area,” Al Mazroui added.
This week the RTA announced they plan to build 19 bridges for pedestrians crossing in Dubai in 2014 and 2015 – seven this year and 12 next year – in areas that witnessed the most pedestrian accidents, such as Al Quoz industrial area.
ali.shouk@7days.ae
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