Abu Dhabi motorists are told to clean up their cars

Abu Dhabi residents face fines for having dirty and dusty cars, the municipality has said.

A spokesman for the authority issued the warning after an Irish expat told 7DAYS she was pulled over by police and told to get her car cleaned.

Teacher Shannon Baggs said she was driving along a road in the Khalidiya area of the city at lunchtime last week when she heard a police siren behind her.

“They had the siren going, they had the lights going. I immediately thought ‘Oh God, what have I done?’ but I knew I wasn’t speeding,” she said.

Baggs said she pulled over and a policeman asked for her licence, which she showed to him. He then asked for her vehicle registration card.

“My heart was racing. I kept thinking I must have done something bad,” she said. As she was searching for her vehicle registration, the police officer told her to leave it and to follow him.

She got out of the vehicle and he ran his finger along the outside of her car. “Your car, very dirty,” she claims he told her.

Baggs agreed to clean the car that day. “He was polite and, in fairness, there was a lot of dust on the car,” she said. Under municipality rules, cars must be cleaned in a car wash, not manually by workers. A spokesman for the authority said the rule ensures that police and officials know if a car is abandoned.

Officials put a warning label on cars that have not moved in two weeks and look as if they have been abandoned. If the cars are not moved 24 hours after that, they are towed. Owners must pay Dhs10 per day in impound fees, with a Dhs2,000 cap. Any vehicle that is not claimed is auctioned off.

The spokesman confirmed there was a penalty for having a dirty vehicle but did not state how much it was.

sean@7days.ae