DUBAI - The minimum legal driving age should be lowered to 16 in the UAE, a senior police officer has said, claiming the move would help to reduce the number of fatalities on the road, local daily the National reported on Sunday.
“To allow young people to drive at the age of 16 is a protection for them. They would have the appropriate knowledge and training of how to drive safely,” Major Gen Mohammad al-Zafein, director of the Dubai Police traffic department, was quoted as saying.
Zafein said many teenagers already drove their parent’s and elder siblings’ cars without their knowledge, the newspaper reported.
He said youths should only be granted the temporary licence until they are 18, but only after they have taken 100 hours of driving lessons, the paper reported.
The idea has caused concern among instructors, consultants and parents, who say 16-year-olds are not mature enough to get behind the wheel of a car, the paper said.
Nearly 500 people were killed on UAE roads in the first half of 2009, 2.6 percent less than the same period last year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Interior, but the number of accidents rose by more than a tenth.