"Think and do not repeat the same mistakes."
Those were the words of reckless drivers who ruined their lives and the lives of others.
A motorist who was paralysed after a traffic accident shared his experience during Gulf Traffic Week and advised motorists to follow traffic rules and to never drive recklessly.
Abduallah Saeed, an Emirati, said: "I was driving recklessly on a wet day in Sharjah. I was driving over the speed limit and did not pay attention to a massive hole in the middle of the street."
Mr Saeed said that he lost control of his vehicle and his car fell into the hole.
Because of the vehicle’s speed and the impact of crashing into the hole, his body was thrown out of the car.
"When the ambulance arrived and took me to the hospital, I was unconscious and my body was covered with injuries," Mr Saeed said. He remained in a coma for five weeks and woke up to learn that he had been paralysed.
In another incident, a Palestinian Syrian woman caused a horrific accident in Dubai when she jumped a red signal and smashed into another car.
The driver of the other car was paralysed and lost his manhood.
Sara, a 40-year-old who asked that her full name not be revealed, said: "I lost everything due to this car accident.
"I lost everything in a matter of minutes.
"This accident occurred around three years ago. At that time, my fiancé broke up with me after he convinced me to take a loan that worth more than Dh100,000. I was thinking about all the amount of money I had to pay back to the bank and many things were going on in my head. I lost control over my car. I jumped a red signal and hit another car. The crash left the another motorist paralysed and he lost his manhood. I served six months in jail and paid a hefty fine," Sara said.
She said: "I wish if I was focusing more behind the wheel, instead of thinking about all the problems that was going through my life. Before this accident, everything was fixable. I could have managed to pay the loan and concentrated more on my job."
In another horrific accident, a mother lost all her children in a car accident in Ras Al Khaimah because of reckless driving and over speeding.
The woman, Egyptian, prefers to keep her name anonymous, said: "I can’t forget the day when I lost all my children in a car accident.
I was reckless and I wish if I was more careful on the way.
The Egyptian woman, 33, said: "When I had the accident, none of the passengers in the car were wearing seatbelts. I was driving and a truck crashed my car, killing all my children."
I am sharing this devastating experience to advise parents and all drivers to be aware of the small decisions they make on roads and to avoid accidents that could change their lives in a second.
The number of people killed in traffic accidents increased from 675 in 2015 to 725 last year, according to statistics released by The Ministry of Interior (MOI).
According to Brig Ghaith Hassan Al Za’abi, Director General of Traffic Coordination at the MoI, the total number of serious accidents across the country in 2016 reached 4,788 as compared to 4,796 in 2015.

Source: The National