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• Bosch urges motorists to take vehicle checks, avoid driver fatigue, prevent child distractions as figures show alarming death rate on GCC roads
Dubai, UAE: families preparing for the start of the school term have been urged to take three key steps to help avoid traffic accidents, which result in one fatality every hour in the GCC region.
Badly maintained vehicles, driver fatigue, and distractions caused by children are three acknowledged major causes of accidents, and new warnings are now being issued at Bosch Car Service workshops across the UAE.
“We're committed to playing our part in making roads safer, and every customer is being given verbal and written advice to help reduce the chance of them being involved in an accident,” said Andreas Bodemer, Regional President of Bosch Automotive Aftermarket Middle East and Africa.
“The first priority for parents driving their children to school is to make sure their car is in good condition. That means checking the brakes and the tyre pressures, which are so important to road safety, as well as the car battery and oil and fuel filters which can leave people stranded and exposed in very high temperatures and at the side of a busy road if they fail.”
“At the same time, people should guard against the summer heat which can cause driver fatigue much quicker than normal, so it's necessary to take regular breaks, drink plenty of water and stay refreshed.
“Just as importantly, parents need to remember that children become excited or perhaps anxious as they head back to school for the start of term, so they need to ensure they don't cause distractions which ultimately can lead to accidents or even fatalities.”
The three-point road safety advice from Bosch comes as newly released accident figures highlight the disturbing rate of deaths on the roads in the GCC.
Organisers of NATRANS Arabia 2015, an event being launched in the UAE in October to help tackle road safety, said that almost 10,000 people died on the Gulf region's roads last year - a rate of approximately one person every 53 minutes.
In the UAE, they said, a road death occurs on average every 12 hours, with 712 deaths last year. Bahrain was the safest country, with 61 deaths and one occurring every six days on average. Saudi Arabia had the poorest record, a total of 7,867 deaths at an average of one every 80 minutes.
Speed of service, guaranteed spare parts and value for money are the biggest attractions for motorists taking their vehicles to a Bosch CarService centre in the UAE this summer for brake, battery, lighting and filter checks.
Said Bodemer: “Over many years Bosch technology has been producing parts which make cars safer and more efficient, and summer is a time when that is so much more important in this part of the world.”
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