What you need to know:
- Dubai Police helps residents reach airport, amid standstill traffic
I’ve lived in the UAE for more than four decades, and I’ve had a good experience in the country. I would like to narrate an incident, which took place, where the Dubai Police came to my rescue and helped my wife and me in a difficult situation.
What happened?
On July 4, 2019, my wife and I were catching a flight from the Dubai International Airport to Kerala, India, my hometown. My friend and neighbour Murli was driving us to the airport. We decided to leave our home in Karama a good four hours before our flight so that we don’t get stuck in traffic. Our flight was at 11:10pm, and we started our journey at 7pm.
We live in the Karama area of Dubai. Being a Thursday, we anticipated heavy traffic, which is why we decided to start our journey hours prior to the scheduled departure. However, as predicted, the roads were blocked by cars.
We unfortunately got stuck in traffic and our car did not move for more than 150 metres in one and half hours. We were panicking because the traffic was not getting better and we did not know what to do. We could not turn back also in order to try any alternate route, the traffic was almost standstill.
I got out of the car and requested people to give us way as we had to get to the airport, but no one budged.
Dubai Police intervention
I know a little Arabic so in that moment I decided to call the Dubai Police for assistance. I explained the situation to them and I told them that if we do not get to the airport in time, our ticket would get cancelled and we would miss an important function back home.
The personnel on the other line told me to calm down and that the traffic would eventually clear out. After we cut the call, in a few minutes, we were surprised when we heard sirens. A police car had come to help us. I don’t know how they managed to find us. We showed them our ticket and information. They then told my friend to put his hazard lights on and to follow their car.
The Dubai Police vehicle drove us carefully through the traffic. They drove on the side of the road and we followed. And, because my friend is an experienced driver, he managed to keep up with them. They escorted us to a place where the road was clear.
We thanked them and went on our way. We managed to reach the airport in just 10 minutes, and luckily reached the terminal on time, just before the gates had closed.
Past experience
I have been a resident of the UAE for the last 45 years and I have always had a great experience with the Dubai Police. I called them because I had heard of a similar story in Sharjah, and thought it was the only thing I could have done in that situation.
Previously, many years ago, my car had broken down on the Al Ain-Dubai highway, just a few kilometres away from Dubai. We stopped the car on the side of the road. I had not called the police but a Police patrol car passed by us and stopped.
They stayed with us till our car problem got sorted and escorted us to a certain distance to Dubai.
My family and I want to thank Dubai Police for their timely intervention and for getting us to a safe situation. We have no words to express our appreciation for the timely help of the Dubai police.
If they did not come to our help we would have missed the flight and we would have been unable to attend a very important function back in Kerala, the holy communion of my grandson.
This is the Year of Tolerance and I want to commend the UAE on this occasion. I also want people to abide by traffic rules and drive carefully on the roads.
The reader is a resident of Dubai, who works in administration control at a Dubai-based telecom company. He worked in the same company at the office in Al Ain, prior to this.
