Ali M Darabi Golshani - Assistant Chair, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE
Hamid Nikraz - Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Curtin University, Australia

United Arab Emirates enacted a law towards end of year 2001 making seat belt use compulsory for all drivers and front-seat passengers. They have also enacted another law banning children under age of 10 to sit in the front seat of the car. Despite all these laws, statistics show that a large number of children were killed or injured while sitting in the front seat and many of them not wearing seat belt. In order to substantiate these claims, during April 2005, an observational survey of 400 vehicles was conducted in the Emirate of Dubai using two intersections near local schools. Findings of this survey indicated that nearly 8% of children sitting in the front of a vehicle were not wearing seat belts while only 4% of Adults were not wearing seat belt. These figures could be underestimated as at the same time in Dubai there was a Road safety campaign with financial rewards (RoadStar) in progress and hence more people would have been aware of safety problems

TAC2005, Seat Belt, Young Children, Dubai