I really have to agree totally to the undeniable fact, that driving on Dubais roads ,is nowadays one of the most dangerous things i've ever experienced in live- and that includes parachuting, competition downhill-skiing, trekking through soutamerica/ climbing in Patagonia/ Torres de Paines& Himalaya and done some "sportsmans-class" aerobatics flying - which is far less dangerous ¬ endangered by some (not necessarily - but most of the times) young locals/nobrainers with their "daddy-sponsered" overpowered Sportcars, SUV or other misused vehicles on publich roads ! It's hillarious !
Examples - Here we go ....
... just last week, i've just been able to avoid crashing into a massive piece of furniture lying on the middle of SZR - apperantly just coming off from some open Pick-Up - which they use commonly for movin' their stuff here - with obviously insufficient (if any at all!) securing of that stuff!
everybody was driving around that lump with 100+ km/h - as it was in the middle of the lanes -deadly dangerous!!!
... on another occasion a local cab-driver veered (without any sign/ signal given) over all the lanes in front of the Jmeirah Beach Hotel - just to pick up a "russian lady" (my guess after sighting her with golden hand-bag and on high heels) signalling after finishing her "business" over there ... forcing me and others onto: MAX-Brake to avoid a collision ..
Furthermore - last year i visited a really nice friend of mine (a european EK Co-Pilot) at the American Hospital, who was run over at almost the same U-turn-Bay in Jumeirah, whilst he was sitting (not driving though!) on his bike (he shoudn't have done that ...), and got hit by a local reckless SUV-Driver with Sharjah plate, who was speeding through the U-turn bay, in an attempt to overtake some slower traffic ....
that poor guy broke his leg pretty badly in that incident - and police did nothing at all to find the driver, even as the make of the car and some letters of the arabic SHJ-licence-plate was given to the police by onlookers of the scene -
the policeman actually told witnesses, that the unlucky bike-driver, who was run over from behind, might have been speeding on his bike - whereas the witnesses confirmed to him, that he guy was stationary waiting on the bike to get over onto the other side, and not driving at all -as his bike had just suffered minimal glass damage /unlike his leg- the police-guy was however not convinced - nuff said ...
and i remember sadly that last year someone from AUS/NZ was run over, by bicycling on one of the major roads from behind - just like the popular young lad, who dared to get out of his car, after fuel starvation -
it's really like war out there - you never know, when Your number is coming up!
I'll be tomorrow givin' a last thouhgt to that very unlucky young couple that was hit flat-out by a local lady - on nthe Al-Wasl U-turn;
apparently as the damage to their car was deadly and fire involved, those two in the car dindn't survive;
i saw the accident-site in the afternoon, and could also find NO skidmarks at all from teh AUDI of that local lady!? - Odd!?
Said all that - and agreeing to Wileys post - i'm also one of the demotivated & postponed F/Os with >3 yrs in the company, who just had enough by now, and are actively looking for greener grass (where it grows naturally -that is)
- and those "peanuts" of salary increase, won't keep me off doing that and rather staying/ strugglin' here - my family & my health have to go first - and - yes - as stated above - it's sad to see, but You can't deny the fact (!) that Emirates has truely become one of the plenty third world airlines nowadays ...
"Pay penuts => You'll get monkeys ...."
