ABU DHABI // Several accidents had traffic snarled in the capital for hours yesterday morning as throngs of commuters drove to work at the same time because of Ramadan working hours.
During the holy month most companies have working hours of 9am to 3pm, which can cause major morning and afternoon congestion on the capital's roads and highways. Additionally, a police order banning lorries from entering the city around rush hour, issued every Ramadan, caused more traffic delays once the lorries were granted access at 9.30am.
Traffic was bumper-to-bumper yesterday in the Al Raha area near the Sas al Nakhel bridge directly before the exit to the Maqta Bridge, where four cars were involved in an accident prior to 9am.
"There were no injuries or major damages. The police removed the cars out of the way, and the traffic was flowing again," said Maj Muhsen al Minhali, director of traffic control, highways section, of the Abu Dhabi police.
Ahmed Abdulghany, a 22-year-old banking trainee from Egypt, who was arriving from Dubai about 9am, said he was stuck in the tailback behind the accident for about 20 minutes.
"And once we were on the bridge on that exit, there was another accident, which created a bottleneck for everybody to go through," he added.
Olya Moskalenki, a 24-year-old public relations executive from Canada, said she reached that area at about 8.15am and saw a car that had skidded off the road and a minibus that had run into a fence.
"I think I arrived right after the accident happened because I hardly stopped, I just passed by it," she said.
Another crash occurred at about 10.30am on Al Kahleej al Arabi Street on the approach to Musaffah Bridge involving a car and a bus carrying 16 passengers.
Police officials said tailgating caused the crash, which involved minor injuries. Police said congestion at the scene of the accident was caused by motorists slowing down to look at the chaos. In addition, the vehicles involved in the accident did not move to the side of the road before police arrived.
Two people were injured in a separate accident when a lorry and a car collided. One of the vehicles drove through a red light in front of the Shabia Police Station on Defence Road at about 6.30am, police said.
There were no serious injuries in any of the accidents, officials said.
Dana Akel, 23, a human resources officer from Lebanon, said the 10-minute drive from her house on Salam Street to her office at Al Hosn University in Airport Road took her 30 minutes yesterday.
"I left the house at 8.45 and I only reached [work] at 9.15," she said.
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Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
