The Ministry of Interior warned the curious against gathering at accident sites and photographing the victims, as this would exacerbate the accidents and hinder the arrival of rescue teams and the provision of first aid to the injured, in addition to causing psychological harm to the injured and their families. It warned that photographing the victims and publishing their photos on social media sites is a violation of individuals’ privacy.
According to police reports, curious pedestrians and drivers have caused a number of traffic accidents across the country, as a result of them gathering or stopping their vehicles in the middle of the road to watch and photograph accident details, which has obstructed the arrival of ambulances and fire engines to the accident sites.
The Ministry of Interior warned that gathering for the purpose of curiosity or photography exposes those involved to legal accountability, calling on drivers not to gather at traffic accident sites and stop vehicles to take pictures, as this is a negative behavior that poses a danger to everyone.
She pointed out that the fine for “not giving priority to emergency vehicles, ambulances, police vehicles or official convoys” stipulated in the Federal Traffic Law has been amended to become AED 3,000, with the vehicle impounded for 30 days and six traffic points, effective from July 1.
She stressed that the decision comes to enhance the safe environment of roads, achieve the highest levels of traffic safety, control road security, reduce the number of deaths resulting from traffic accidents, and achieve the target of the National Agenda indicators according to the vision of the UAE government.
The Ministry stressed its keenness to enhance road safety and security and to take all measures and means to ensure this, calling on road users to be active partners in the Ministry’s efforts by assuming responsibility and being always ready to make way for emergency vehicles and to adhere to correct traffic behaviors when passing them to ensure that their arrival to accident sites is not delayed by making way for these vehicles, giving them priority and not obstructing or delaying them.
The Ministry of Interior has recently launched civil patrols to monitor violations of obstructing emergency vehicles and official vehicles. It will also monitor this through smart systems and cameras installed on roads or on emergency vehicles to ensure traffic safety for all, and that these vehicles reach their intended locations as quickly as possible and without obstruction or delay.
The Ministry stressed that when hearing sirens or seeing the lights of emergency vehicles, it is necessary for everyone to be responsible and contribute to enhancing safety and protecting lives and property by giving these vehicles priority, noting the importance of the public taking the correct measures to be followed when seeing emergency and official vehicles so that they become active partners in serving the community and contributing to saving the lives of others, as we are accustomed to the positive nature of the community that is keen to support government procedures to provide the required services.
Photographing traffic accidents, publishing their photos and exchanging them via social media is a criminal act according to Article 197 bis 2 of the Penal Code, which punishes with imprisonment and a fine “anyone who uses a means of communication or information technology, or any other means to publish information or news, even if it is true.”
The legislator also criminalized in Article 198 bis of the same law “whoever intentionally broadcasts false or malicious news, statements or rumours or spreads them among people, or causes harm to the public interest, shall be punished by imprisonment.”
This is the same punishment, according to Article 21 of the Law of 2012, regarding combating information technology crimes, which punishes with imprisonment and a fine of not less than 150 thousand dirhams, or with one of these two penalties, “anyone who violates the privacy of a person in circumstances other than those permitted by law, by taking, transferring, revealing, or copying images of others, or publishing photographs, scenes, comments, data, or information, even if they are correct and true.”
Unacceptable behaviors
Abu Dhabi Police warned against curious people gathering at traffic accident sites, photographing vehicles involved in accidents and the injured, and publishing the photos on social media without permission, which exposes them to legal accountability.
She pointed out that some accidents occurred as a result of some drivers stopping at accident sites and curious pedestrians crossing the roads to accident sites, unaware of the movement of vehicles, which leads to them being run over, pointing out the negative effects of crowding in causing traffic congestion at accident sites.
She stressed that gathering at accident sites is considered a negative and unacceptable behaviour that hinders the arrival of ambulances, emergency vehicles, traffic patrols and civil defence as quickly as possible, to carry out their duty in providing humanitarian assistance to the injured and saving their lives.
She advised drivers who stop to provide humanitarian assistance to the injured to follow the correct steps by stopping their vehicles, turning on the warning signals in the injured person’s vehicle, and placing a warning triangle behind it to alert vehicles coming in the same direction, to avoid other traffic accidents.
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