DUBAI // Motorists are being urged to drive carefully during Ramadan after one person was killed and three injured on the first day alone.
An Asian man died on Wednesday after his car swerved and crashed at a building site in The Springs.
Later that day, another man was run over and seriously injured behind a petrol station in Al Qusais.
Elsewhere, an Emirati was seriously injured and his passenger hurt after their car hit a signpost near Al Faya roundabout on Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road. The car overturned twice.
First Lt Imran Abdullah Al Hammadi, of Dubai traffic police, said there were more crashes during Ramadan.
"Sometimes, just before iftar, people who are fasting want to get home and eat," he said. "They're tired, maybe not in a great mood, and they could be driving long distances.
People should make sure they drive according to speed limits, stay in control, keep their distance, and not speed up just before iftar."
First Lt Al Hammadi said people who were far from home at iftar should break their fast on the road by stopping for a rest and a snack.
Last year, 123 were killed in road crashes in Dubai, 14 of them during Ramadan - a toll more than 40 per cent higher than the monthly average for the rest of the year. Eighty-two people died in road crashes in the first six months of this year in the emirate, an increase of 64 per cent from the same period last year.
First Lt Al Hammadi said the rise could be attributed to a number of crashes in which many people were killed in the same accident. He said Dubai police did its best to advise people on road safety.
"One of the worst problems for us, and the most difficult to deal with, is how many people are killed trying to cross 12-lane highways like the Dubai-Abu Dhabi or Dubai-Sharjah highways," he said.
"We run road-safety campaigns, we raise awareness and we even have officers that teach labourers how to cross the road safely, where to cross and where not to cross.
"But every few days we hear someone died crossing a large highway."
