OK and now a priceless true story...I know, because this is what happened to me today!
I am heading for DIP and the Green Community and traveling down the Al Khail Road. The junction at the end where it meets the Emirates Road is still under construction and is going to be a roundabout. All the road signs are temporary yellow and black ones.
I know that when I get to the end of the road I must turn right, so therefore I get into the right hand lane of 3 clear ones. The 4th lane on the right is filled with trucks and is solid all the way back almost to Barsha. When I approach the new junction all the signs straight ahead direct you to Sharjah and Dubai Airport. I want to turn right but there is only a single lane slip road and lots of trucks. The sign is actually situated at the junction so, realising about 50 metres out I need to turn, I duly indicate, move into the slip road and make the right turn in the queue of trucks.
As I am turning the corner, I notice there is a police car sitting at the junction and he is taking my registration number! In fact he is taking the number everyone who is carrying out the simple task of turning right. A taxi driver has even pulled over onto the sand as is arguing with his companion. I could not stop so carried on to my meeting with steam coming out of my ears!
Having finished the meeting I immediately drove to Barsha Traffic Police Department as I knew the patrol would still be on the road and not had time to file his long list of despicable collars for the day and demanded to see a senior officer. It did not take long for me to be ushered into the presence of a very pleasant captain where I could explain my anger at being booked for no reason and, after many diagrams and drawings and lots of typing on his computer and making calls to find out which patrol was on duty in the area, I was duly escorted to the head of Patrols Department. Explaining the situation once again (with further diagrams) and much checking of my vehicle records to see if I owed thousands in fines, and me clearly laying out the implications of over zealous policing, it was eventually decided that I would be called when he had completed his investigation.
The call came this afternoon and I was apologised to and told that I would not be fined although technically I should have been in the truck lane all the way from Barsha doing 20 kms per hour and not turning into the lane so close to the junction. I said that, had there been a sign positioned sooner on the road, I might have done, but I wanted to go to Jebel Ali, not Sharjah.
Irony: My business partner passed the same junction 10 minutes earlier and made the same maneuver. He got a ticket!
It just goes to prove that if you complain first, you win!
Knight
