When you are out on the roads, you are bound to be attentive to the surroundings, be aware of all the rules and regulations of the road/region being traversed, and have a high situational awareness as well. Should you lack these, you’ll end up like this guy who had to pay not one, but 8 fines for going ‘too slow’ even while he was cruising at 110 kph! The frustrated user soon took to Reddit and got fried by netizens. Here’s how he learnt his lesson…
Before We Dive In
The incident happened on the E311 highway in the UAE. Also called Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, it connects Dubai to the rest of the Emirates. This is the road you’ll take to travel from Dubai to Abu Dhabi and thus has good traffic on most days. This is a high-speed highway and the minimum speed limit for the first two lanes from the left is 120 kph, in both directions. The upper limit is 140 kph,. You’ll thus have to be doing speeds in the range of 120-140kph on these lanes. This is enforced by using cameras and surveillance systems.
What if you fail? Well, driving below 120 kph on the fast lanes would attract fines of AED400. This 62-kilometre motorway was opened in 2016. The Abu Dhabi Police (ADP) implemented the minimum speed threshold and fine structure on May 1, 2023. You might now wonder why a minimum high speed needs to be enforced on a motorway. The answer is simple. On a road with high-speed traffic, a slow-moving vehicle can be dangerous, if not fatal! Speeding vehicles could suddenly see the slow car, lose control and crash into it or other vehicles.
The Case Of This Redditor
The man who goes by the Reddit username snazzy_champ travelled from Dubai to Abu Dhabi and back, recently. He drove to Abu Dhabi in the morning and returned at night. Soon after reaching home, he got a total of 8 fines issued, for underspeeding on the motorway. The exact amount he earned in fines isn’t known at the moment. If we are to make a guess based on a single ticket costing AED 400, 8 tickets could be around AED 3,200. This could mean 73,782 Indian rupees. Frustrated by the same, the man soon took to Reddit explaining (read complaining about ) his plight.
He was likely expecting sympathy and support from the community. Reddit however, had other plans for him. In his post, he said that he was unaware of the rule and further stated that no prompt warning signs were there and he received the notification late. He said that an earlier notification could have helped avoid further fines. His Reddit post reads:
“I travelled to Abu Dhabi from Dubai yesterday. I was driving at 110-115 km/h in the second lane (next to the fast lane). When I reached home at night, I got a message about a total of 8 fines for both my drive towards Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I was not aware of this rule, and there was no flash from the camera. I had no idea about the fine for slightly slow driving, and it wasn’t mentioned on any signs.
I travelled to Abu Dhabi in the morning and returned at night. There was no notification until I reached home. Had there been any notification for the morning drive, I would have been more careful on my way back to Dubai. I know it’s my mistake, but fining without any notification or news article is totally unfair.” He further attached a screenshot of the message informing him about the fines, with the post.
Fellow Redditors showed no mercy to him. They schooled him about having proper road safety awareness and the importance of abiding by rules for safe motoring, the hard way! Nobody seemed to agree with his complaint and as it turns out, the man has taken down his post.
The internet soon pointed out (with proof) that all of his claims or allegations were false. The road has several signs displayed in a ‘hard-to-miss’ informing motorists about the speed limit and related rules. These are displayed almost every 3 kilometres and it should be the driver’s ignorance and lack of attention that led to him getting fined. At the time of implementing the speed limits, the authorities had published multiple news articles and social media posts informing people of the same.
As pointed out by someone, the Emirates road ( as it was called previously) also has third and fourth lanes for people who prefer to drive slightly slower (and relaxed) and this puts the driver under more criticism! Either it was complete ignorance or was deliberate…
