In the Middle East, at least, last week's three-day BlackBerry outage may have had a silver lining. The Dubai police have been quoted as attributing a 20 per cent reduction in road accidents to the disruption in services.
According to a report by UAE-based news daily, The National, Abu Dhabi too reported a drop in non-fatal accidents by as much as 40 per cent.
The reduction in accidents was noted among young drivers and men, who are the largest user group of the BlackBerry Messenger and other services.
Lt Gen Dahi Khallfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police, was quoted by The National as saying, "The accidents that occur from the use of these devices occur range between minor and moderate ones, but at times they are deadly". He also said that Dubai Police will use electronic evidence against drivers who cause accidents by using the smartphones while at the wheel. 36,500 fines have already been handed out this year to drivers. Abu Dhabi police also began a campaign against drivers using phones two weeks ago.
Last week, BlackBerry services went down in multiple parts of the world from October 10 to 14, which included the Research in Motion's famed enterprise Email service and BlackBerry Messenger encompassing.