DUBAI // Drivers who cause death or serious injury should be imprisoned for longer, have their licences revoked and be ordered to take remedial driving classes, road-safety campaigners say.
“It is time to re-examine the laws. We should consider if we are sending the right message to motorists and to international visitors, in light of increasing tourism and the Expo 2020,” said Robert Hodges, chief operating officer at Emirates Driving Institute, a driving school that also runs road-safety courses.
“We have to try to benchmark international norms and adopt best practices. And once the laws are reviewed, prosecutors should send a blunt message that law breakers on the roads will not be tolerated.”
Last year, a drink-driver who ran over and killed the popular Dubai triathlete Roy Nasr was sentenced to a month in prison.
This week a Brazilian drink-driver was given a two-month sentence for running over and killing a British tourist in Dubai, then trying to flee the country.
Last year 12 people were killed in Dubai in incidents involving drivers under the influence of alcohol, an increase from five in 2012.
The emirate’s transport regulator, the Roads and Transport Authority, joined calls for legal changes.
“These laws have been there for many years,” said Ahmed Bahrozyan, chief executive of the authority’s licensing agency.
“It was not a big issue back then when they were put in place but the circumstances have changed and the city has grown. Such offences in another country would have got multiple years.
“The laws need to be reviewed and should be more in line with changing circumstances and what the primary causes of accidents are.
“If drink-driving is the primary cause of accidents, we need to take action. This is the logical way forward.”
Thomas Edelmann, founder of the website Road Safety UAE, said: “Lawmakers need to do international benchmarking to understand what role special penalties could play in improving safety.
“Road safety is a two-pronged approach. It is about educating people, which is the carrot approach, while the stick approach is penalising people who don’t follow the rules.”
Mr Bahrozyan called for a policy review at a federal level. “Our cities are small and the driver could be from another emirate. Policies are more effective if they come from the federal authority,” he said.
Of the most recent incident, Mr Hodges, of the driving school, said: “A hit and run case is serious. It is not a premeditated murder but what makes it bad is that the car driver was drunk, he drove on without stopping to check if the victim was all right and tried to escape the country. Elsewhere, he would have got between five and 15 years.”
However, lawyers urged caution in drawing general conclusions from specific cases. Ezzeldin Othman, of Ezz law firm, said there was no long-term jail sentence because it was an accident.
“The jail time of two months that the Brazilian received is because he was drunk at the time. Deportation is also not compulsory in such cases,” he said.
Bahi El Jendy, of International Advocate Legal Services, said: “When there is a case such as a drunk driver accidentally killing someone, many factors are taken into consideration.
“Depending on the case, the fault does not necessarily fall completely on the driver, even if he was drunk.
“Sometimes, the victim may have contributed to the accident and that would decrease the percentage of fault on the accused.
“As a lawyer, I do think it’s just. It can happen to anyone that they accidentally kill someone, especially when we’re talking about vehicles. The driver is in the wrong to be drunk, but that does not make him a criminal.
“The judge takes many things into consideration and he has the full authority to measure all these factors in line with the law.”
pkannan@thenational.ae
* Additional reporting by Dana Moukhallati
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Read more about the coronavirus
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Engine: 2.3-litre, turbo four-cylinder
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Power: 300hp
Torque: 420Nm
Price: Dh189,900
On sale: now
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Scores
New Zealand 266 for 9 in 50 overs
Pakistan 219 all out in 47.2 overs
New Zealand win by 47 runs
Florida: The critical Sunshine State
Though mostly conservative, Florida is usually always “close” in presidential elections. In most elections, the candidate that wins the Sunshine State almost always wins the election, as evidenced in 2016 when Trump took Florida, a state which has not had a democratic governor since 1991.
Joe Biden’s campaign has spent $100 million there to turn things around, understandable given the state’s crucial 29 electoral votes.
In 2016, Mr Trump’s democratic rival Hillary Clinton paid frequent visits to Florida though analysts concluded that she failed to appeal towards middle-class voters, whom Barack Obama won over in the previous election.
