ME NewsWire
Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Thursday, January 23rd 2014
The UAE Ministry of Interior (MoI) had issued a notice for mandating speed limiters for private passenger buses that hold a capacity of 22 passengers in line with a recommendation it received to that effect from the Emirates Authority for Standardization & Metrology (ESMA). Owners of mini buses were then given a March 2013 deadline to comply with it. By now, about 70% of the 50,000 operational mini buses have such speed limiters installed, with maximum speed limit being set at 100kmph.
There are 100+ types of vehicles including mini-passenger buses like Toyota HiAce, Nissan Urvan, Hyundai H1 etc. in the rule and those that do not have a speed limiter will not get a pass certificate necessary for renewal of annual registration.
"Speeding incidents involving both mini buses and passenger buses have significantly reduced following the move to install these devices. Many accidents are caused by over-speeding. This is why the UAE MoI had made it mandatory for mini buses to install speed limiters,” said Mr. Mohammed Ashraf, the Managing Director of Autograde.
Ashraf was referring to statistics announced recently by Dubai Police traffic department, about speeding offences in Dubai for 2013 standing at 1.19 million or 67 per cent of the total violations.
There are 110 ‘fitment’ centers selected by Autograde across the UAE to ensure that the gear is installed properly. Over 45 such centers are in Dubai alone.
After fitting the equipment, the centers set the limit with a tamper-proof device before issuing a certificate indicating the kit was installed properly. Ashraf said they qualify workshops and train technicians too. Autograde started supplying speed limiters to ENOC-Tasjeel petrol stations in JAFZA and Warsan on April 1.
Enumerating the other benefits of speed limiters, they also afford drivers better control of their vehicles, help in reducing fuel consumption by keeping the vehicle in optimum speed zone.
The new order to make it mandatory for buses to have speed limiters has impacted more than 253,000 pupils in Dubai who are served by more than 3,000 buses. School buses were already required to have speed control systems limiting them to 80 km/h. Overall, the initiative has been a great success in 2013 and will further see improvement in 2014.
Contacts
Nausheen Shamsher
0971-558-178-152
nausheen@ibuz.ae
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