Driving me crazy

I have previously written about my passive road-rage issue and this time I am going to rant about the active part of my road-rage problem. The active part really comes into play especially between 07:30 – 09:00hrs and then 16:00-17:30hrs.

On many occasions I’ve experienced near accident situations. However there was a particular incident which really agitated me. On a beautiful evening on my way to pick up Smera, I almost saved myself from colliding into a car, thankfully I had enough space between me and the next car to apply sudden brake and hazards.

Some random guy was tailgating another car while he is on the phone crashes on Sheikh Zayad Road roughly about 16:15pm. That’s not it along with it two other cars are smashed. I was fourth one in line and luckily even at 110Km/hr could safely slam the brakes without colliding into the crash. But the sight was devastating to see as two of the three cars were completely damaged.

It’s a usual thing here especially at peak time, but it frustrates me that if you are not worried about your own life, at least think about others lives.  I stopped and got out pull the person out of the third car as I could see smoke coming out of the vehicle, a few other people stopped by to help.

The lady in the third car, feeling shocked and hurt, her first question upon getting out of the car was, “Are there any kids in other cars?”. Not worrying about her injury, she was more worried about others in the crash.  Accidents are bound to happen, they cannot stop but one can help minimise it.

My husband works in the insurance field and being in the motor insurance field, I get hear awful stories of people and sometimes even an earful for being a little rash. I am not claiming to be the best driver in the world, but just imagine, I was on my way to pick up my daughter and if I too had crashed then she would have been stuck crying wondering where her mum was.

By all means drive fast in Dubai, the roads are good and you can speed up too but just use little basics:

• Leave enough gap between you and the car ahead of you.
• Tailgating a big no-no, that’s just plain rude!
• Use the wonderful device called indicators while changing lanes
• Please buckle up your kids
• Should you feel the need to sudden brake please use hazard lights
• Lastly don’t use indicators to change lanes with hazard light on, it does NOT help.

I leave you with a few stories from the newspapers here in UAE, maybe you can understand my frustration:

• Dad dies, mum and son hurt in Sharjah road smash
• Tragedy-struck Sharjah family loses breadwinner in car accident
• Accident death toll for this year
• 289 accidents reported in Dubai on foggy Tuesday