Resident peeved by new ‘useless’ traffic cameras

Manama : A resident of Bahrain described the newly-installed traffic control cameras as “useless,” as it apparently didn’t do justice to him when he was involved in a hit-and-run incident on one of the main highways in the Kingdom.

Mohammed (name changed) said he was driving on the left lane of Khalifa bin Salman Highway last week when another driver hit his vehicle and escaped the scene, right beneath of the many modern-technology cameras installed along the busy road.

While speaking to DT News yesterday, Mohammed said he was driving back from Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) on the highway en-route to Manama when the incident took place.

A driver in a GCC registered vehicle was apparently sticking to the taillights of Mohammed’s car, trying to force him to change to the slower lane.

Mohammed told that he was sticking to the speed limit of the road (100 kilometre/hour), however he also said that he didn’t notice the SUV sticking to his back.

“I only saw him when he drove on the hard shoulder (yellow lane) on the extreme left side of the road and literally pushed my car to the right. Fortunately, I managed to control the car and didn’t hit any other vehicles. He pretended to stop on the right side of the road. So I followed, but when I slowed down, he revved his car and drove off so fast that I couldn’t catch up with him,” Mohammed explained.

He added that when he called traffic police, they asked him to go to Exhibitions Centre Traffic Police Department in Sanabis. He said he was disappointed when he reached the office because he didn’t note down the other vehicle’s registration number and the traffic policemen on duty told him that “there’s nothing they could to help him”.

“I informed them that the incident occurred near one of the new cameras on the road. But, they said that the cameras don’t record vehicles’ registration number plates. How’s this even possible? They simply told me that they can’t help me and I should file a case at the police station. This is not justice at all. I could have lost my life in this incident and no one is held accountable for it,” a disappointed Mohammed added.