Observations on driving in U.A.E. - part II

By all means, don't just take my word for it... the frontpage of our local newspaper Gulf News today said in big letters: 'Fiery Deaths in Fog'.

(image courtesy of Gulf News)

Yesterday, Sara and I wanted to visit Dubai. 40k's out of Abu Dhabi we ran into traffic, very heavy traffic. My immediate thought: it must be an accident, because there is no other reason why it shouldn't be moving. There's nothing out here, Dubai is still at least 40kms away! So I turned on the radio and listened to reports of one of the biggest accidents in the history of the U.A.E.! At least 3 killed, 350 injured, at least 60 vehicles involved in the crash! One of the main reasons why this crash could happen was that, even though heavy fog reduced visibility to less than 50 meters, people were still speeding! A recipe for disaster :(
Click on the picture for the full article.

(on a lighter side, finally, after having waited for almost 3 months, we have our car back! and yes, it looks like new! and now starts the selling...)

Observations on driving in U.A.E. - part I

When cars -be it 10 or 100- are waiting in front of a 'robot' (as my South African friends call it so endearingly), or traffic light as we call it, and the light turns green, the last car, all the way in the back, will simultaneously -as if magically connected to the traffic light- honk his horn to let everyone know that the light actually has turned green and is his way of showing his displeasure at the fact that no one has started moving yet.