DUBAI // Transport authorities have asked the owners of campsites to help police the use of quad bikes to avoid needless injuries and deaths.
An awareness campaign that aims to encourage owners of tourist camps to provide safety tools to customers, was launched by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in cooperation with Dubai Tourist Police.
The RTA said an extensive campaign in an attempt to help avoid quad bike accidents has been run. The campaign visited 23 camps across Dubai that are renting quad bikes, and distributed leaflets to employees and customers.
The leaflets explained safety and security conditions, it also highlighted the gravity of ignoring to put on bike safety gear at all times while riding in the desert.
Dubai Police Traffic Department said that nine quad bikes accidents were reported last year in Dubai. Police said about one or two people died each year between 2013 and 2015, and in 2016, a 20-year-old woman died in January.
The Ministry of Interior in Abu Dhabi revealed that last year, 174 quad bike and three-wheeler bike accidents killed 19 people and injured 155.
Of those, 101 were caused by collisions, 56 were results of mechanical failure, and 16 riders were run over by other vehicles, figures showed.
During March this year a teenage girl has died after the quad bike she was on crashed on the way to school. The 13-year-old student from a private school in the emirate died of head injuries sustained in the crash in Al Seyouh.
Last February, a 21-year-old Emirati woman died from severe injuries in Ras Al Khaimah after the quad bike she was riding with her Emirati husband, 25, crashed at the weekend.
The woman, who was not wearing a helmet, died at the scene and her husband was treated at hospital for minor injuries.
Campaign to cut quad bike injuries in Dubai