‘I was driving at 160km/hour. I spent next 20 days in coma’

Once a reckless driver, Marwan is now an advocate of safe driving

Dubai - Speed nearly killed him on the road and grounded his plans to take to the skies. Marwan Mohammed Saeed speaks slowly of a battered body now tattooed with the scars of a nightmare he has lived to tell. His shoulders have a metal feel to them; what was once bone is now made of steel. Doctors screwed his pelvis into place. He now walks with a small limp as his left leg is shorter than the other after months of surgery to replace the bone with a titanium rod. A mellow Marwan recounts the ordeal and says: “I wouldn’t wish this even on my worst enemy.”

The strapping 25-year-old Emirati rues his former adrenalin-driven life when racing was a passion. He now advises youth to stay off the fast lane while sharing his experiences as a survivor.

“Two years ago I drove my friend’s Nissan Patrol and left Dubai Marina to go home.” Saeed says he hadn’t slept in two days and as slumber took hold of his senses, he dozed off at the wheel and the vehicle skidded and tumbled from Hessa Street Bridge.

“I was in coma for 20 days, and after I woke up, I remained in Rashid Hospital for over three months. Later, the cops informed me that the radars caught me travelling at 160 km/hour, which caused the car to skid off the bridge.”

He also suffered internal bleeding in his lungs, kidneys and stomach; a titanium rod in his left leg, and the dislocation in his leg caused his left leg to become two inches shorter than his right leg.

“I have permanently lost feeling in my back due to the pelvis dislocation, and when I take off my shirt, I look like a man with multiple tattoos.”

“Speeding is a culture of UAE youth, but they must know that the consequences of driving fast are very harsh. You will have to forget about doing everything that you usually enjoy doing. I will never be able to become a pilot, nor will I be able to enlist myself for military service,” he says.

Marwan counsels youngsters on the dangers of speeding and reckless driving at every given opportunity. “Emiratis have easy access to fast cars and even if they can’t afford it, they save up enough money and spend all of it on making their cars move very fast,” said Marwan.

“Traffic studies compiled by the RTA say three factors — misjudgment, sudden swerving, and not leaving a safe distance between vehicles — are responsible for 63 per cent of fatalities from traffic accidents reported over the past two years,” said Maitha bin Udai, CEO of RTA Traffic and Roads Agency.

Deema Hussein, a traffic awareness senior manager at the Traffic and Roads Agency at RTA, said that awareness-raising programmes have become more interactive and social media friendly and that the RTA is considering starting a counselling facility for post-accident and trauma victims. “Accident victims are usually treated at the Rashid Hospital and as of now, there are no centres or facilities for post-operative counselling. It is a requirement and it is something that we would consider doing with the Ministry of Interior,” said Hussein. “When young men like Marwan speak to school students and at clubs, they listen with interest to what he has to say,” said Hussein. -dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com