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Stiffer penalities

FAR too many lives are being lost on our roads and most of it can be blamed on speeding and rash driving. Given that UAE has one of the highest road deaths in the world, the call by researcher Mahmoud Mohammed Abdul Qader to impose stiffer penalties, especially on repeat offenders, needs to be given a serious look into.

He has a valid point when he says that harsher penalties can — and will — act as a strong deterrent and motorists will think twice before breaking traffic rules when they know it will hurt them where they will feel it the most: the pocket. Ironic, but true.

His call has been based on a research that he undertook on the “role of penalties in reducing road accidents”. It would be a pity if the painstaking study is ignored and reduced to a mere footnote.

But does come as quite a surprisein the study is that law enforcement agencies “were not enforcing several articles of the federal traffic law effectively, particularly the one on previous violations.” The law is the law and must be enforced in full with no room given for “reconciliation or settlement through payment of damages” without it first being referred to the court.