• Home

Rains add to woes of motorists in Al Ain

AL AIN - While the unseasonal rains and dust storms in the past few days have come as a relief to Al Ain residents, it has made it difficult for motorists.

Over the past 11 days, Al Ain Police have received a large number of complaints from motorists, saying they were finding it difficult to drive on the water-logged and slippery roads in the city.

Major Tareq Salih Mohammed, Head of Al Ain Police Operations Department, said they had received over 2,000 complaints from motorists during the first 11 days of this month.

In this period, Al Ain city has witnessed a large number of road traffic accidents, including the incidents of skidding of cars due to accumulated rain water as the city was lashed by strong thunderstorms, Major Tareq said.

He pointed out that the Al Ain Police Operations Department had received 200 daily complaints during that period.

In addition to the slippery roads, the broken trees were hampering traffic movement as well.

Ashraf Sharif, an Al Ain resident, told Khaleej Times he was afraid to drive his car during the thunderstorms that lashed the city in the past two weeks as the roads were slippery with sand and water accumulating on the stretches.

Nihad Sameer, another resident of the city, said some streets in the city had been water-logged due to the bad drainage system.

'While a majority of the accidents resulted from strong winds, rains and storms, some others could be attributed to reckless driving,' Major Tareq noted.

Meanwhile, Saeed Obeid Al Kaaby, Head of the Emergency Department of Al Ain Municipality, said the municipality was making all efforts to pump out the rainwater from Al Ain streets.

• UAE