On average, every day in the UAE, two people are killed on our roads. Look around your office, your workplace, your home. Now remove two people from what you see. That’s the human toll of our driving habits; our carelessness behind the wheel; our inattention to others; our disregard for the rules of the road; our texting and driving; our speeding; our failure to buckle up and make sure all in our vehicle are harnessed; our stunts and bravado. And our loss.
In other nations, authorities might look to the road conditions as a cause for the carnage on our roads. Here, in the UAE, we are blessed with a modern road and transport infrastructure. Bridges and flyovers ease the flow of traffic, roads are mostly wide and straight, and there rarely aren’t weather conditions such as severe storms to impede motorists or endanger their safety.
There are radars and modern technology employed to provide checks and penalties on vehicles that travel too fast, are tailgating or use the emergency shoulders. Our cars too are mostly modern, and the rules and regulations across our municipalities ensure that they are kept in a state of proper repair — at least when it comes to the renewal of registration plates.
So with all of these measures and laws, technology and infrastructure in place, why do fathers and brothers, sons and daughters, sisters and mothers, leave their home and never return because they are the latest road death statistic?
The answer lies with us. Each and every one of us. When we get behind the wheel of a vehicle, we are in control of a deadly weapon — one that can crush, maim and kill in an instant. And we forget that as soon as we get a text, a phone call, listen to a tune, adjust the radio, turn on the GPS, or are distracted in any way.
There are those too who get behind a wheel and try to show off — spinning doughnuts and performing stunts. There are no laws that make stupidity illegal — but those who commit such stupid driving deeds need to be punished to the severest extent of the law.
We all know it’s wrong to text and drive. Yet most of us look at our phones with a disregard and casualness that borders on the criminal. And others pay for their lives because of that. Let’s hope the WhatsApp update was worth it. Social media junkie drivers need to get a life. Not take one.
