'White points' mean prizes for Dubai's drivers

Reckless motorists and serial speeders in Dubai now have a chance to repent under a new ‘white points’ scheme.

The plan, the brainchild of Dubai’s top cop, will see good driving rewarded with white points, which drivers can use to wipe off traffic fines and dreaded black points.

Drivers who show they are whiter than white on the roads could even be handed shopping vouchers and entered into a prize draw to win a new car.

Details of the scheme, which has been mooted for some time, were finally revealed yesterday by Dubai Traffic Police, who said the new system would be up and running by the beginning of next year.

Drivers will accrue one white point for each month they do not commit any motoring offence, including Salik violations and violations in other emirates.

The points can then be cashed in to wipe away black points, pay off traffic fines that have no black marks attached, or even get your car back if it has been seized.

Dubai’s chief traffic cop, General Mohammad Saif Al Zafeen, said: “It was the idea of the head of Dubai Police, General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, that motorists who are obeying traffic rules should be given white points, which can be used to clear black points.”

Black points are handed out for serious traffic offences, such as jumping a red light. If a motorist accrues 24 they lose their licence for a year.

Five years of driving on the white side of the law, though, will see motorists entered into the prize draw for the car.

Al Zafeen added: “If a motorist commits a serious traffic offence that adds 24 black points then he

will be forbidden from getting any white points

for a year.”

The new white points scheme will only apply to people with a driving licence issued in Dubai and who have at least one car registered in the emirate.

As well as cancelling out black points, drivers will also be able to spend white points on getting a seized car returned.

“This system will help us find the best drivers at the end of the year and they will get gifts from Dubai Traffic Police,” Al Zafeen added. The gifts will be items such as shopping vouchers.

ON THE WHITE SIDE OF THE LAW

How motorists can spend White Points:

>>Cancel up to 12 black points

>> Have a car returned that has been seized for up to

30 days.

>> Pay one traffic fine a year, provided it did not also accrue black points

>> Drivers with the best records can exchange the white points for vouchers

>> Drivers who do not commit an offence for five years will go into a prize draw for a new car

ali.shouk@7days.ae