Long before The National’s Road to Safety campaign, long before The National, come to that, driving standards in the Emirates were a cause for concern.
The photograph, published in Al Ittihad in 1984, shows what was described as an inspection campaign to “raise awareness and interest in the ethics of the road”.
These Abu Dhabi police officers seem to be stationed on the Corniche, to a backdrop of construction, as the city expanded as fast as the traffic on its streets.
Perhaps these officers were simply offering friendly advice to the city’s motorists, although the fact several of them are holding notepads and pens suggests that they were not above handing out a slightly more severe lesson to those unappreciative of the “ethics of the road”.
* James Langton
