Background The magnitude of road traffic injuries (RTIs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), witnessed steady declines over the last two decade, due to the introduction and enforcement of comprehensive measures to reduce RTIs in the UAE, including, overall improvements to the country’s roadway network, the introduction of compulsory annual vehicular inspection system, the introduction and enforcement of enhanced traffic safety laws, first in 2007 and again in 2017, the provision of timely, life-saving emergency care services to RTI casualties, the introduction of the black points system and deployment of speeding radars on all UAE roads and traffic signals. This study aims to analyze the secular trends of RTIs in UAE during 2000–2021, to identify their reported causal factors and to review the effectiveness of the measures used to mitigate these needless losses in the UAE.

Methods Data was obtained from official UAE traffic safety sources for the period 2000–2021. Time series analysis was performed to analyze the secular trends RTI. Regression analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to identify the likely causal factors responsible for these changes.

Results Roadway crashes steadily declined in the UAE by a trend component of – 1.34 (R² = 0.65) during the period 2000–2021. Likewise, fatal injuries declined on yearly basis by a trend component of -1.24 (R² = 0.88) and the trend of non-fatal injuries declined further by a yearly component of - 18.59 (R² = 0.91). ANOVA showed that careless driving, excessive speed and not leaving enough distance were significantly associated with severe RTI injuries (p<0.05). The results demonstrate the effectiveness of traffic safety measures introduced by the UAE authorities to control RTIs over the last two decades.

Conclusions The introduction and enforcement of new traffic laws and regulations, in 2007 and in 2017, to curb speedy driving, tailgating, cell phone use while driving etc., effectively reduced the magnitude and severity of road crashes in the UAE.. The study provides clear evidence for the effectiveness of the measures implemented to control RTIs in the UAE.