Few stick to speed limits on deadly highway near Ghantoot

Ghantoot: Near Ghantoot, the speed limit is clearly marked on this stretch of road linking Dubai and Abu Dhabi: 120 kilometres per hour.

As an experiment, I kept to the limit — nothing more, nothing less, driving between the two cities on Sunday afternoon.

This same stretch of road was littered the day before with the twisted metal and broken plastic from 127 vehicles which came to a screeching halt and pile-up. One Asian was killed in the foggy pile-up — and were it not for some quick reactions, the death toll could have been worse.

A German-model SUV speeds towards me on the outside lane nearest the median, its lights flashed repeatedly. I watch as four vehicles give way, one narrowly missing me as it pulls in front, clearing the path for the white streak. It passes at a speed considerably faster than my car which I purposely maintain at the 120km mark.

There is no flash from the aging grey photo radar camera angled to the right of the road. Fast, but not fast enough to merit a fine in this Abu Dhabi sector.

New cameras

Earlier, near the Mall of the Emirates, contractors for the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority were putting in place a new, multi-tiered photo radar camera, able to snap speeding motorists across all four lands in each direction of the Shaikh Zayed Road. The new blue and grey cylindrical cameras are replacing the current pole-mounted ones of the same colour scheme which were installed over the past two years.

Beyond Ghantoot, I maintain my speed, setting a time for five minutes on my watch. I count as 94 cars overtake me, all exceeding the legal limit.

I move to the second lane from the right as repeated motorists flash me to move out of the way.

But travelling in this lane is fraught with danger too. Slow-moving delivery truck and taxi pickups move at barely 80 kms, presenting a frustratingly dangerous line for other drivers who want to merge on and off the highway.

One truck driver has had enough of this slow pace too, overtaking a number of others by using the emergency lane to zoom up and gain ground on the convoy.

A grey minibus pulls out in front of me, forcing me to brake hard as there's no room to manoeuvre. Its driver is seemingly oblivious to the faster traffic on the rest of the road. I mentally prepare for a hit from behind as other cars slam on. It never comes, instead others behind me pull out in front of the fast moving cars in the two lanes nearest the median.

Food for thought

At a cafeteria on the other side of the road, trucks line up on the hard shoulder. There is no eatery on my side, but two fully-laden trucks are parked on the hard shoulder, their cabs deserted, their drivers presumably having ran across all eight lanes of speeding traffic for a bite to eat — food for thought on a road that thousands travel every hour of every day.