Green Isn't Always GO

An OFW was killed in Dubai road accident  last week.

I'll tell you one thing I learned when I was there.

In Dubai, GREEN doesn't always mean GO.

Last March of 2009, it became a part of my job to always go out of the office for some field work.  This means that I was exposed to the unfriendly roads of Dubai.  I learned my lesson.  I blogged about one of the incidents I saw.  But that is minor compared to what happened to others, especially to this OFW.

I remember writing about another incident, too, but I'm not patient enough to search for it and writing it again is easier for me.

Early morning, I was in the island waiting to cross.  An RTA bus just made its full stop and I was just waiting for my walk light to turn green.  When all of a sudden, I heard a loud screech followed by a loud 'Bang!'  It was a car hitting the back of the bus.  Because of the force of the impact, the bus jolted forward a few inches. A smoke came from the front of the car, and then, one by one, the passengers of the car went out.  The front of the car was totally wrecked.

I suddenly felt cold.  I didn't cross right away.  I felt very thankful that I didn't walk right away.  Otherwise, I might have been hit by that forward jolt caused by the impact.

I think what happened to this OFW could be what I have always been afraid of when crossing pedestrian lanes in crossings and stop lights.  Many drivers in Dubai attempt to beat the red light.  Only to end up stepping on their brakes a little too late, making their full stop sometimes in the middle of that X portion in the middle of the 'crossing.'  This means that by the time they pass the pedestrian lanes, they are still at half of their speed.

This time, I am saying this again.  This is something that I learned from those days of crossing one street to another.  Please do not cross the road until you see all the cars in front of all the lanes in full stop. At least this would mean that those cars aren't already trying to beat the red light.  Also, another safety precaution I took was to always cross at the far end of the pedestrian lane - far from those cars in front, just in case something like the above happened again.

Do not try to beat your 'walk light' either.  It's so not worth it.