Dubai Drivers Recover After 200-Car Pile-Up

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2008 — -- The cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi are recovering from the shock of a 200-car pileup on Tuesday that left at least four dead and 300 others wounded.

Dozens of cars were on fire after a series of crashes on the highway linking the two main cities of the United Arab Emirates.

"It was a disaster scene, everyone was speeding and after the first crash happened people just started hitting each other," Khamis I. Mohammad, an Abu Dhabi Police official, told the state-owned Gulf News.

Colliding cars were engulfed in flames, creating an inferno that grew as a total of 92 cars caught fire, according to one government official cited in local reports. Survivors are still recovering in local hospitals.

The morning rush-hour accident was blamed on heavy fog, not uncommon on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi route.

The highway is the main link for commuters between the two centers of regional business made rich by oil wealth.

Given its skyrocketing growth and few public transportation options, driving is a necessity in the UAE.

In a society with a deeply engrained car culture, the news of Tuesday's accident runs deep, with dramatic eyewitness accounts and amateur video showing crunched cars and spreading flames.

"I've never had seen such a terrifying accident in my life. The crash barriers and trees were black in color," Laxmi Biswas, a highway engineer and apparent eyewitness, wrote on the Khaleej Times Web site.

"I saw a bodybag. Some cars were flipped over. I've never seen a pile-up this big," eyewitness Ramy Dia told Arabian Business magazine.

"People are shocked because of what has happened, they've stopped and are just looking … a car which is completely charred, that is all I can tell. I cannot tell the brand, or if it's one car or two. All I can is that it was once white."

Road safety is an ongoing concern in the UAE, which has yet to operate rail lines and public transport options are now under development.

According to government statistics published in Arabian Business magazine, more than 1,050 people were killed in road accidents in 2007, up from 868 the year before.

One person is injured on UAE roads every two hours and one killed every 15 hours. The country had a population of 4.1 million in 2006, according to government figures.

For people new to the UAE – that means many, given the vast numbers who come to visit and work in this booming economy – driving can seem treacherous.

"The driving here can be a nightmare with traffic, especially in bad conditions. People are not equipped to deal with cloudy, foggy, or wet weather," Michigan native Mohamad Kadry told ABC News.

"Dubai offers a different kind of driving experience than America. You have people coming from countries that don't have stoplights in a place that is working to conform to international standards."

The speed limit on the highway is 140 km (roughly 86 miles) per hour, but police say motorists should know to drive more slowly in foggy weather.

Government agencies have scaled up efforts to promote safe driving. One public service announcement posted in a Dubai municipal office appealed to religious sensibilities, a potentially powerful motivator in a devout Muslim society.

"Speeding is a sin and speeding drivers are sinners," the sign reads. "Is speeding worth the sacrifice, death, and sin?"

Today that argument became considerably more powerful.