UAE:Insurance regulator working on telematics to promote road safety

The UAE Insurance Authority (IA) is working to apply a vehicle technology system to monitor the behaviour of drivers and to guide them so as to avoid traffic violations.

The director general of the Insurance Authority, Mr Ibrahim Obaid Al Zaabi, said that this followed a presentation to the Government Accelerator Initiative proposing the adoption of the best international applications, such as telematics, in order to reduce traffic accidents and the number of road deaths.

Mr Al Zaabi said in a statement that the implementation of the initiative will be through cooperation with some strategic partners from government agencies such as the Ministries of Interior and Economy, the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology, the Roads and Transport Authority in Dubai and the Department of Transport in Abu Dhabi, etc as well as insurance companies.

He said that the Authority has conducted extensive studies on best practices and modern international applications. The results of the studies showed that the adoption telematics has led to a decrease of 50% in the number of accidents in some countries.

Mr Al Zaabi pointed out that the implementation of the initiative will be through several stages, including laying down the database infrastructure. Telematics will be applied first for transport vehicles in the pilot phase and then on to taxis and fleets of commercial vehicles and rental cars and private cars.

Source: Middle East Insurance Review