Dubai police share a patrol car with The National to give the public a taste of the ever-changing tasks, challenges and sometimes tragedies that officers deal with on the roads.
DUBAI // Fastening their seatbelts at the start of their shift, first lieutenants Easa Suwari and Mohammad Al Badwawi never know what the next eight hours have in store.
As Dubai traffic police officers, they find themselves catching speeding, reckless or drunk drivers, issuing traffic fines, clearing debris that has fallen from the back of lorries or dealing with the carnage of fatal pile-ups.
Dubai Police allowed The National to spend a morning with the patrol officers to get a taste of what they face in a typical shift.
It is 9am and traffic is heavy on one of the UAE’s flashpoints, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road at the border between Dubai and Sharjah.
Minutes into their shift, the pair spot their first traffic offence.
A team of workers has marked off a section of road as they carry out improvements but have not placed enough traffic cones to alert motorists.
Seemingly a minor offence, it poses a danger to themselves and to other drivers, as Lt Suwari explains while stopping on a bridge and waving to the workers below.
Moments later, he and Lt Al Badwawi stop again. A damaged white lorry is on the side of the motorway and debris litters the road, clearly after an accident.
Three men are on the road – in harm’s way – inspecting the damage. Switching their siren on, the officers pull over behind the lorry.
Often, says Lt Suwari, drivers are confused about what to do after an accident, and rather than getting to the correct side of the barrier away from the traffic and reporting the incident on 999, they deliberate on the road.
When asked about the accident one of the three men, a 47-year-old Indian, says a car hit his lorry and that the driver did not stop at the scene because he was taking his sick child to a nearby hospital.
“The driver had phoned the police, given his number and accepted responsibility for the incident but it was an emergency and he had to leave,” says Lt Suwari. “They were here waiting for him to return later. He had a good reason to leave.”
Having taken a report and ensuring the three men were safe, the officers’ next stop comes when they see a broken-down van parked on the roadside. Dirt obscures its licence plate and tools are littered on the road as the driver tries to fix a hydraulic problem.
Greeting the driver and establishing that he speaks little English, Lt Suwari converses with him in Punjabi.
His job and Dubai’s diverse population has led him to learn several languages. The driver has committed two traffic offences and is issued two on-the-spot fines before being told to move his vehicle to a safer area.
From there, Lt Suwari and Lt Al Badwawi are soon addressing another hazard – a car parked at the middle of an intersection before an exit off Al Ittihad Road. It is, says Lt Suwari, a sitting duck in danger of being hit by an oncoming vehicle.
He is told by the driver that his car is an electric, or hybrid, vehicle and has run out of power, forcing him to wait for the sun to provide the solar energy needed to restart the vehicle.
As reasons go, Lt Suwari says this is a first in his 20-year traffic policing career.
“What to do?” he asks, as Lt Al Badwawi directs the surrounding traffic until the car’s battery has recharged. “He had a situation. There is no need for a fine, just to make him safe. This our job at the end of the day – to provide a solution.”
It’s an example, Lt Suwari says, of how every day brings a fresh challenge and the need for a fresh solution.
“You are expecting anything when you start your shift,” he says. “Anything.”
They are as prepared as they can be for any eventuality. The boot of the officers’ patrol car holds the essential equipment they will need for an accident.
Among the equipment are traffic cones, chalk, a torch, a shovel for sand to cover an oil spill and the item they least want to use – a sheet to cover the victim of a fatal car crash.
This, to Lt Suwari, is the crux of the job – reducing the number of times that sheet will ever have to be used. “We are here to provide a solution to the accidents, to reduce these incidents and these deaths, to make everyone on the roads safe.”
______
For more:
› Dubai Police officers reveal biggest pet hates when it comes to traffic offences
› Dubai traffic officers opt for friendly approach with offenders, as safety is top priority
› Dubai traffic police to have eyes in the backs of their heads
› A day in the life of a Dubai traffic police officer - in pictures
newsdesk@thenational.ae
