Road safety campaign after 19 children killed in five months

The Ministry of Interior launched its third child road safety campaign yesterday and revealed that 19 children were killed in road crashes across the country during the first five months of the year.

The ministry's campaign is an attempt to protect children and to establish a safe driving culture in the emirate, officials said.

Brig Gen Ghaith Al Zaabi, the director general of traffic coordination at the ministry, said it was being introduced across the country in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, the Roads and Transport Authority, Emirates Transport and other governmental stakeholders.

The multimedia campaign coincides with the start of the school year. Earlier this year, traffic police announced they would launch safety campaigns at three-month intervals to help reduce the number of road deaths, which stands in Abu Dhabi at 10 per 100,000 people.

Each campaign will be presented in various languages, including Arabic, Urdu and English, and tackle a different aspect of road safety, from seat belt use to urging pedestrians to use designated crossings.

Traffic police say the positive results of their campaigning can be seen in this year's numbers.

The number of crashes during Ramadan and Eid in Abu Dhabi this year - 198 - fell by nearly a quarter - 258 - compared with last year.

mismail@thenational.ae