Big Trucks
plus
Heavy Loads
equals
Dangerous Traffic Lights

In 1968, Costain Construction Company ordered ninety Foden Road Trucks ex UK, each capable of carrying up to 40 tons load. These ninety trucks were to transport rock from Badiyat Quarry along a purpose built road to the Port Rashid Construction Site.

Distance from the Quarry to Port Rashid was about 45 kilometers. There was little traffic on this road other than rock trucks but to enter Port Rashid entailed crossing Al Mina Street, a busy road to Satwa and Jumeirah. Temporary automated traffic lights were installed at the road crossing.

These lights were programmed to stop traffic on Al Mina Street when a rock truck approached so the rock truck did not have to stop before entering the construction site

And therein lay the problem

Technology was programmed - but people were not

Road to Badiyat became known as Quarry Road. Rock Trucks, loaded with 40 tons of rock, drove rapidly along Quarry Road towards Port Rashid. Sensors were placed in the road to register a rock truck approaching the traffic lights. When an approaching truck was detected, the traffic lights changed to allow the truck to continue to Port Rashid without stopping

But those arrangements did not take account of Dubai Taxi Drivers' way of driving, people in a hurry or those that simply ignored traffic lights.

Rock Trucks always win

Collisions occurred and people were killed.

Public was not always to blame. On occasions, a Rock Truck would be travelling faster then the sensor expected resulting in the truck arriving at the traffic lights before they changed in the truck's favour.

Allan Cooke recalls those "Temporary Traffic Lights"

They installed sensors in the morning

Four hours later the sensors failed

By the afternoon there were fatalities

Driving on Quarry Road was dangerous too

Rocks often fell from a Rock Truck as it travelled along the bumpy Quarry Road

Anyone driving on that road had to be aware of rocks on the road and the possibility of rocks falling from a Rock Truck as they followed behind.

Even the Rock Trucks were at risk

When the truck drove over the rock, the Truck's unprotected steering arms and brakes underneath the truck, were ripped off and/or damaged leaving the truck without steering or brakes.

The damaged truck swerved off the road onto the desert sand alongside the road where the truck buried its wheels in the sand. The truck came to a halt without injury to the Driver.

Report by an Insurance Assessor

Long Term "Black Spot"

Permanent traffic lights were installed after Port Rashid's construction completed but that road crossing continued to be a traffic "Black Spot"

Rock Trucks were replaced by Container Trucks.