The number of traffic casualties in Abu Dhabi's Western Region has dropped from 77 deaths between January and November of 2011 to 43 so far this year, a decrease of 44 per cent, police figures show.
The drop is in line with a downward trend in the number of accidents, which have decreased from 280 to 229 over the same period, according to Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister paper of The National.
"The accidents that happened so far this year ranged from collisions to roll-overs and run-overs," said Maj Suheil Al Mazrouei, head of the Western Region traffic section at Abu Dhabi Police.
He said the most common causes of these accidents were, in order of importance: swerving suddenly, negligence, failure to maintain a safe distance between vehicles, fatigue and sleepiness, tyre blowouts and unsafe merging into a main road.
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