AUD organizes Road Safety Workshop conjointly with RTA

As part of the RTA's Traffic Awareness Section Plan and its strategy to translate its Vision "Safe and Smooth Transport for All," and to create effective awareness to help reduce the number of road accidents, fatalities, and injuries, the RTA integrated the "Traffic Awareness Ambassador" initiative within the Road Safety Workshop and assigned Basil Shaaban, the sensational formula-3 driver and first Arab to win a Formula Ford 1800 race in Europe, the task of demonstrating to the AUD community members the risks of speeding and warning them against the dreadful upshot of reckless driving and not abiding by the customary safety norms.

18 AUD students signed up for the RTA's "Traffic Awareness Ambassador" project to represent the RTA in several internal and external Road Safety Awareness Programs and Traffic Campaigns within the University community. Those ambassadors will get first-hand information on the latest state-of the-art RTA services and receive Appreciation Certificates presented by high ranking officials from the RTA.

Nelly Halabi, AUD's Health Center Director, comments, "This campaign has been organized to enlighten young people and broaden their knowledge on road safety through warning them against the calamitous outcome of speeding by way of showcasing concrete cases of reckless driving and their dire consequences. Unfortunately, AUD lost one of its students last year in a horrendous car accident due to speeding; that dreadful instance ignited the students to join the RTA's Traffic Awareness Ambassador Project and educate themselves on road safety measures."

In turn, Engineer Hussain Al Banna, Director of Traffic Department at the RTA, asserts, "The RTA works ceaselessly with Universities and academic institutions across the UAE to spread road safety awareness among the youth. The Traffic Awareness Ambassador program at The American University in Dubai encompasses awareness lectures, informative collaterals and live road safety demonstrations with the aim of enlightening the students on the causes of traffic accidents and the preemptive methods that could be adopted to help prevent car accidents which are the prominent cause for the loss of lives among the youth."

The workshop received a huge AUD student, faculty and administrative bodies' turn-out and was concluded with Live Safety Demonstrations in front of the Student Dormitories to grant the students hands-on experience in road safety norms.