BlackBerry blackout ‘reduced crashes’ in Middle East

12.01 | 20 October 2011 | | 2 comments

The recent BlackBerry blackout caused a significant drop in road crashes in the Middle East, according to police in Abu Dhabi (The National).

The blackout left millions of BlackBerry users without access to email and messaging services.

In the period that the BlackBerry servers were down (11 – 13 October) traffic accidents in Dubai decreased by 20% and those in Abu Dhabi dropped by 40%.

Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, the chief of Dubai police, and Brig Gen Hussein Al Harethi, the director of the Abu Dhabi police traffic department, linked the drop in accidents to the disruption of BlackBerry services.

Brig Gen Al Harethi said: “Accidents were reduced by 40% and the fact that BlackBerry services were down definitely contributed to that.

“Absolutely nothing has happened in the past week in terms of killings on the road and we’re really glad about that.

“People are slowly starting to realise the dangers of using their phone while driving. The roads became much safer when BlackBerry stopped working.”

Click here to read the full ‘The National’ report.

Comments

Comment on this story

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Report a reader comment

Order by Latest first | Oldest first | Highest rated | Lowest rated

    It would be very interesting to see if similar trends for that week are evident in other countries such as the UK and USA?


    Matt, Cambs
    Agree (0) | Disagree (0)
    0

    If we ever needed additional evidence to demonstrate the dangers of using mobile devices while driving here it is!


    Jan Deans -Dynamic Group
    Agree (0) | Disagree (0)
    0

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close