Motorist sentenced to 6 months, fined Dhs100,000 for drunk driving in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi Criminal Court sentenced a driver to six months in jail and fined him Dhs100,000 for recklessly driving a vehicle against the direction of traffic and under the influence of alcoholic beverages in a serious violation of traffic rules and regulations and a direct threat to public safety.

The court also ordered the vehicle used in the incident to be confiscated and the perpetrator’s driving licence to be suspended for 3 years, starting after the expiration of his sentence.

Earlier, the accused was tracked down for driving his vehicle in a manner that threatened public safety and against the direction of traffic. After being apprehended, he was found in an abnormal state and a blood sample test report issued by the forensic evidence laboratory confirmed that the sample was positive and contained a percentage of alcohol.

The court based its conviction of the accused on a set of evidence the field arrest report, the Monitoring and Control Centre’s surveillance camera recordings, which clearly documented the serious violation, and the accused’s admission before the court that he had committed the incident.

The court affirmed that the accused’s behaviour constituted a flagrant violation of prevailing traffic regulations and existing legislation, stressing that it would apply the provisions of the federal decree-law on traffic regulation and the law on crimes and penalties to deter violations that threatened the safety of road users and their right to safe mobility.