Police say they are seeing more and more cases of drivers being distracted as they struggle to use super-sized phones at the wheel.

With screens getting larger all the time, Colonel Saif Muhair Al Mazroui, the head of Dubai Traffic Police, said officers have spotted motorists fumbling with the new plus-sized mobiles, even taking both hands off the wheel to use them.

He issued the warning after an American driver was seriously injured after crashing into the back of a track while using his phone.

Dubai Police said the American was on the Dubai – Al Ain Road when the incident happened on Monday.

He was taken to Rashid Hospital for treatment, police said. Al Mazroui said the driver looked up from his phone too late and slammed into the truck in front of him.

He said: “With the new big phones, you can see drivers dropping it while using them as they are driving – then trying to pick them up again, and it’s very dangerous”.

Al Mazroui added that some motorists wrongly think they can use their phone and drive at the same – but he warned: “They endanger their lives and others”.

And he insisted that the response times of motorists busy with their phones at the wheel “is just like the response of a drunk driver”. The fine for using a phone is Dhs200 and four black points.

The Shoura Council on Saturday said it has not made any recommendation to lift the ban on female drivers in the Kingdom, contrary to a foreign press report.
An Associated Press report carried by international media outlets quoted an unnamed Shoura member as saying the king’s advisory council recommended that the government lift the ban, on condition that only women over 30 be allowed to drive.
Also, women drivers must be off the road by 8 p.m. and cannot wear makeup behind the wheel, said the report.
But Shoura spokesman Mohammed Al-Muhanna said the report is false and misleading as the council has not made any such decision at all.