Blackberry's data centre crash may have proved catastrophic for the firms and workers who rely on the smartphones' email services to do business.
But while the disruption may have sounded the death-knell for Research In Motion, the phones' embattled maker, it may have helped save lives elsewhere.
In the United Arab Emirates, a dramatic fall in traffic accidents has been directly linked to the three-day blackout of Blackberry services.
In the kingdom of Dubai, the number of crashes fell 20 per cent on the days Blackberry users were unable to use its service.
In nearby Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, the fall was even more dramatic, with the number of accidents plummetting 40 per cent - with no fatal crashes at all.
Usually there is a traffic accident every three minutes in Dubai, while in Abu Dhabi someone is killed in a crash every two days.
Brigadier General Hussein Al Harethi, the director of the Abu Dhabi Police traffic department, linked the fall in crashes directly to the smartphone blackout.
'Accidents were reduced by 40 per cent and the fact that BlackBerry services were down definitely contributed to that,' he told The National, a government-owned English language paper.
'People are slowly starting to realise the dangers of using their phone while driving. The roads became much safer when BlackBerry stopped working,' he added.
For three days, at least ten million of the Blackberry's 70million users could not make full use of their smartphones after the company's 'core switch' failed at its European headquarters in Slough.
What began as a minor inconvenience last Monday turned into an fiasco by Tuesday morning as problems spread throughout Europe and the Middle East before hitting users in India and Latin America.
Everyone from CEOs to text-addicted teenagers was left electronically stranded, unable to send or receive emails or instant messages or surf the internet.
But the drop in the number of car crash deaths was an unexpected benefit, and one with special poignancy in the UAE, where high profile tragedies have highlighted the dangers of using a smartphone while driving.
Two weeks ago Theyab Amana, a UAE international footballer, was killed when he crashed his car into the back of a lorry while reportedly using his Blackberry.
Mr Amana's mourning father subsequently urged motorists to think twice before using their phones while driving.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050656/One-giant-crash-BlackBerry--40-fewer-CAR-crashes-motorists-Middle-East-smartphone-outage.html#ixzz1bElL97wj
But while the disruption may have sounded the death-knell for Research In Motion, the phones' embattled maker, it may have helped save lives elsewhere.
In the United Arab Emirates, a dramatic fall in traffic accidents has been directly linked to the three-day blackout of Blackberry services.
In the kingdom of Dubai, the number of crashes fell 20 per cent on the days Blackberry users were unable to use its service.
In nearby Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, the fall was even more dramatic, with the number of accidents plummetting 40 per cent - with no fatal crashes at all.
Usually there is a traffic accident every three minutes in Dubai, while in Abu Dhabi someone is killed in a crash every two days.
Brigadier General Hussein Al Harethi, the director of the Abu Dhabi Police traffic department, linked the fall in crashes directly to the smartphone blackout.
'Accidents were reduced by 40 per cent and the fact that BlackBerry services were down definitely contributed to that,' he told The National, a government-owned English language paper.
'People are slowly starting to realise the dangers of using their phone while driving. The roads became much safer when BlackBerry stopped working,' he added.
For three days, at least ten million of the Blackberry's 70million users could not make full use of their smartphones after the company's 'core switch' failed at its European headquarters in Slough.
What began as a minor inconvenience last Monday turned into an fiasco by Tuesday morning as problems spread throughout Europe and the Middle East before hitting users in India and Latin America.
Everyone from CEOs to text-addicted teenagers was left electronically stranded, unable to send or receive emails or instant messages or surf the internet.
But the drop in the number of car crash deaths was an unexpected benefit, and one with special poignancy in the UAE, where high profile tragedies have highlighted the dangers of using a smartphone while driving.
Two weeks ago Theyab Amana, a UAE international footballer, was killed when he crashed his car into the back of a lorry while reportedly using his Blackberry.
Mr Amana's mourning father subsequently urged motorists to think twice before using their phones while driving.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2050656/One-giant-crash-BlackBerry--40-fewer-CAR-crashes-motorists-Middle-East-smartphone-outage.html#ixzz1bElL97wj
