Gulf Today, Staff Reporter
As many as 370 violating bicycles and electric bikes were seized within a week during a campaign conducted in Deira, Dubai, Colonel Juma’h Salem bin Suwaidan, Acting Director of the General Traffic Department at Dubai Police, said on Friday.
The seizure campaigns that is organised by the Deira Patrol Department in the areas of jurisdiction to control bicycles and electric bicycles in violation of traffic rules, aims at reducing deaths and injuries resulting from accidents of these bicycles, Colonel Jum’ah bin Suwaidan added.
He explained that riders of those bikes often expose to run over accidents, especially those who walk opposite the direction of traffic, driving on the sidewalks in commercial markets, and in narrow alleys, thus exposing their lives and the lives of pedestrians to danger.
In addition, they sometimes drive on roads and cross them in a very dangerous way, and move around from street to another across the middle islands, he added.
Bin Suwaidan further noted that most of the streets and areas that witnessed violations were Amman Street, Al Khaleej Street, Vegetable and Fruit Market, Dubai International City, Al Qusais, Al Muraqqabat, Naif, and Labourers District.
Colonel Juma’h bin Suwaidan pointed out that cyclists must comply with the safety conditions in force when driving those bicycles. Among those rules are respecting the traffic laws, wearing a helmet meeting the standards, wearing a reflective vests, adhering to the traffic signals and other signs on the road, following directions of a traffic policeman, front and back lights must be in a good condition, bicycles must be equipped with valid brakes.
Recently, the Dubai Police has rescued a crane operator who suffered a heart attack while performing his duties 65 metres from the ground.
The successful operation was carried out by the Difficult Missions and Land Rescue teams of the Search and Rescue Department at the General Department of Transport and Rescue at Dubai Police, in cooperation with Dubai Civil Defence and Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services.
Lt. Colonel Yahya Hussain Muhammad, Head of the Difficult Missions Section at the General Department of Transport and Rescue at Dubai Police, confirmed that the Dubai Police Command and Control Centre had received an emergency call about the operator who suffered a heart attack at the top of a huge gantry at Jebel Ali Port.