Almost lethal...

Dear all,

For the some that know me you would know that I oscillate between the UAE and the UK, and I'm in the UAE now for a few days so my hope was to write about something over here. However, what happened a few hours really shook me and I hope I never have to write about something like that again and for it never to happen to anyone. Anyway I'm talking about UAE driving, so statistics paint a very different story.

While driving today and minding my own business in an area between Rashidiya and Nadd Al Hamar I was waiting for my turn on the traffic lights which were about to turn green. The point of traffic lights is to regulate traffic and the underlying principle is people have to observe the lights for them to work properly. Unfortunately there was one truck that did not, and he was probably doing 100 km/h when he crossed this particular red light. The scary thing is that I was the first in line, so the first to interrupt this guy's journey. However because I'm generally a skeptic I always look around me before entering a traffic junction. This time it saved my life.

The truck entered the junction almost a full 10 seconds after the lights turned red for him (I could see both his lights and mine as it was dark). The ridiculous thing is that if he touched my car I would have probably rolled over a few times (depending of how much of my car he will attack). Also my car will probably collide with the others next to me (there were 3 lanes going straight and 3 turning and about 5 cars per lane.. that's a lot of cars and a lot of human lives.

Anyway luckily I escaped with only about 1 meter from the madman. I'm fairly sure he must be blind or on drugs or probably wanting to commit suicide, as I doubt the truck would shield him from death if he collided head on with 6 lanes of cars. Idiot.
When it happened my human instinct drove me to plant my foot on the brakes while my Arab instinct quickly followed with my hand on the horn. I only understood what happened about a few minutes afterwards.

The bizarre thing is that people were actually passing me (I could only muster 40km/h on the 100 km/h road) and giving me the thumbs-up symbol with big supportive smiles. The imbeciles, what do you want from me? Is this some sick form of entertainment? You like to see things like that for fun? You're happy I almost died? Do you know that that gesture with the thumb originated as a sign to represent the phallic symbol?

A few conclusions:

1- ALWAYS look at all directions of traffic before entering a junction.

2- If anyone can tell me what drove these idiots (I saw 3 different cars do that) to cheer like that, I would be interested to hear from you.

3- If anyone can please post the Dubai Police number to report mad drivers then that would be really appreciated. I intend to save it on my phone. I was too busy being happy to be alive to even remember to look at his number plate though.

4- Why didn't the police cameras that detect offenders crossing red lights flash when this happened? I was in front of one of them and it was past midnight, so I would notice the flash. When is the police when you need them?

Anyway I'm happy I'm alive for now. Elhamdilla. So I guess it's a thumbs-up from me for now. Please drive safely.