Dubai woman gets $54,000 in traffic fines

8 September CNN

In a city like Dubai where radars are almost in every corner, getting an occasional speeding ticket is very common. But a Bangladeshi woman living in the UAE has received more than 250 traffic fines in just 3 months.

According to this article in Dubai based, Gulf News, the fines accumulated over the past few months and reached $54,000 most of which were speeding tickets. Traffic violations usually cost between $163 and $272. The police says the record was broken in the past by a Saudi man who had to pay more than $100,000 worth of traffic tickets. In cases like this, the police department cancels the driver's license and the car's registry. Violators are allowed to pay the fines in installments., but so far the woman has not come forward to pay her fines.

Dubai Police releases a list of the top 10 traffic violators every six months. The second on the list wasn’t far off behind, a Syrian woman has received 288 fines ranking second with a bill worth just over $50,000. Although two women topped the list, police says men are considered more serious violators than women. The 500 or more radars spread across the city helped reduce the death rate of car accidents. In 2008, 294 people died as a result of car accidents, but the number was lower last year.

According to Dubai Police, 134 people died as a result of car accidents in 2011. Police revealed that an approximate of 2.3 million traffic fines are issued per year in Dubai. The list for the second quarter of 2012 showed that out of the ten top violators, five were Emaratis. Speeding and not leaving enough space between cars are common violations on the streets in the UAE. In 2008, 200 or so cars crashed into each other in what became one of the biggest car accidents in the history of the UAE. Police at the time said fog and cars driving so close to each other resulted in the crash.