Dubai motorists will be notified next month via text message if fog or sandstorms are creating dangerous road conditions - part of a new project to reduce accidents. The joint effort by Dubai Police, the federal Weather Department and the municipality seeks to avoid repeats of the so-called Fog Tuesday accident in March 2008. Four people were killed and 350 injured in a 200-vehicle pileup near Ghantoot caused by poor visibility.
The municpaility's survey department has been developing a network of stations across Dubai to monitor tides, weather and fog density, Hussein Nasser Lootah, the director general of Dubai Municipality, said yesterday. A model will be used to predict conditions and the information will be sent to the Dubai Police Department's operation room. A warning would then be transmitted to digital signs on highways and sent to motorists' mobile phones.
Mohammed Mahmoud Mashroom, head of the Survey Department, said heavy fog could pose a serious threat to "traffic safety, life and property". A team from the Geodetic and Marine Survey Section visited the company executing the project in the Slovak Republic to examine the system. pmenon@thenational.ae
