Saturday, April 2, 2011

Will they never learn?!

Another major pile up on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway this morning in fog, involving c.70 cars {UPDATE - now confirmed 127 cars !}. 55 people injured and 2 dead. Basically people driving too fast, too close in poor visibility. Idiots.

This paragraph is interesting:-

Of the 52 injured people admitted at Al Rahba, 16 are Emiratis, 5 Pakistanis and Indians each, 4 Egyptians, 3 Omanis, 2 Bangladeshis, 2 Jordanians, while one each from Sudan, South Africa, Uzbekistan, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
What, no westerners? What a shock. When will these people learn to drive sensibly!


http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/emergencies/major-car-pile-up-in-abu-dhabi-report-1.786418


This is a report of a pile up in the same area in 2008...

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/traffic-transport/horrific-accident-on-abu-dhabi-dubai-highway-near-ghantoot-1.90996
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3 comments:

  1. s.b.April 2, 2011 at 5:34 PM

    Insurance companies won't be too happy. I'm willing to bet some of those drivers don't even have driver licenses.

    I was on my way to Abu Dhabi in 2008 and during the morning fog, on one of the large roundabouts near Seih aSheib a range rover had driven through the guard rails and had crashed in a sand pit in the middle.

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  2. AnonymousApril 18, 2011 at 4:47 PM

    As a South African, I'm not thrilled by your generalization of the accident victims as "non-westerners" and sounding a bit superior. Unless you know the specifics of each and every victim - to say they were all speeding is an injustice. Some of them might well have been conscientious drivers who were rammed from behind by speeding motorists! But this is an exception - I generally enjoy your blog.
    Stephen Visagie

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  3. Neil RobertsApril 18, 2011 at 5:39 PM

    Stephen, thanks for your comment - I always appreciate them!

    Yes, I made a huge generalisation - but I think it is justified. I VERY rarely find myself the victim of some kind of idiotic driving from a westerner. I think westerners also tend to think more about defensive driving too - driving in such a way as to anticipate potential problems ahead (or behind). I have no problem with believing that westerners are superior drivers. I believe it to be true.

    Now, I have no experience of driving in SA, so I can't comment on quality of your nation's drivers - but there are also very few reports of SAs causing accidents either....

    Speed is not always the problem anyway - I think lane dicipline is a bigger problem, especiialy when people drive slowly in the 3rd lane, this is way more of a problem than someone doing 160 in the outside lane....and don't get me started on tailgating!! aaagghh

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