141 road accidents on Wednesday morning

(VM Sathish)

Published Wednesday, October 10, 2012

By Mohammad El Sadafy and Parag Deulgaonkar

As many as 141 road accidents happened during fog in the early hours of morning on Wednesday in Dubai, according to the police.

The police received 1,323 telephone calls related to these accidents.

Brigadier Omar Abdul Aziz Al Shamsi, director of the command and control centre in the police operations room, appealed to all motorists and road users to be cautious in bad weather. Fog, which reduces visibility, can be particularly dangerous for fast drivers, he added.

Brigadier Al Shamsi advised drivers to check the cleanliness of the windshield, glass windows and lights before starting the vehicle. Speed must be reduced, sufficient distance must be kept between vehicles and lanes should be changed only when necessary, he added.

Al Shamsi stressed the importance of using all the lights of the vehicle in early morning hours while going to work. He urged driver to avoid the use of four signal lights during fog as this would not allow the driver to indicate intention to change lanes. Four signal lights should be used only in cases of accidents or to warn other drivers of the presence of something unusual on the road, he added.

10 accidents on Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway

At least 10 accidents and a three car pile up were reported on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway on Wednesday due to dense fog.

Daily commuters called in to inform Emirates 24l7 about the accidents while stating the fog was dense today compared to the past two days. A number of Dubai and Abu Dhabi police cars were patrolling the highway since morning.

“Generally, it takes me 60 to 80 minutes to reach my office in Abu Dhabi from Dubai Marina. It took me an additional hour to reach office today,” said Daniel G, who works with a private company in the capital.

“I did see a number of accidents and shattered glass on the highway. Though a lot of drivers were taking precaution and driving safely, four-wheel drivers just continued to drive fast.”

Suresh Menon, who works with an IT company in Abu Dhabi city, complained the drivers were not moving their cars off the road after accident.

“They remained in the lanes for the police to arrive and thus clogging the traffic. Besides, it could lead to accidents if someone failed to notice these cars.”

Menon added drivers were using the hazard light which was really confusing others.

“After putting on the hazard lights, they just changed the lanes recklessly… there were a number of cases of cars brushing each other.”

Early on Wednesday morning, Dubai Police tweeted: “Please beware while driving, fog formation and low horizontal visibility levels on most parts of the country.”

In 2008, at least three people were killed and nearly 350 injured in a horrific 60 vehicle pile-up on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai highway near Ghantoot.