Background The burden of road traffic injuries (RTIs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), steadily declined in the last decade, following the introduction of comprehensive control measures, first in 2007 and again in 2017. These measures included enforcement of the black points system and installation of speedy radars on UAE roads and traffic signals. This study aims to analyze the secular trends of RTIs in UAE during 2010–2019, assess the effectiveness of the existing control measures, and to identify the specific factors responsible for these changes.

Methods Data from official UAE sources was used. Time series analysis was used to analyze RTI trends. To analyze the possible causal factors, regression analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used.

Results The rates of roadway crash declined on a constant basis between 2010 and 2019 in UAE. Likewise, the non-fatal injuries declined from 92.5 per 100,000 population in 2010 to 75.2 per 100,000 population in 2015 and further declined to 40.9 per 100,000 in 2019. The trend of RTI mortality also declined from 10.0 per 100,000 population in 2010 to 7.4 in 2015 and 3.5 in 2019.

Conclusions The results indicate the effectiveness of the new measures introduced in 2007 and 2017 to control RTIs in the UAE. These measures effectively helped to curb speedy driving, tailgating, cell phone use and other forms of careless driving, and to reduce the magnitude and severity of RTI in the UAE.

Learning Outcomes The study provides clear evidence for the effectiveness of the measures introduced to control RTI in the UAE.