Nightmare journey

We started our travel on the motorway from Islamabad to Lahore and were having a pleasant drive until we were made to exit by the motorway police at the Pindi-Bhattian interchange. It took an hour to get past the toll booth as four lanes of traffic had been packed into the single lane leading to the booth. From that point on, the journey from Islamabad to Lahore, which usually takes about four to five hours, became a ten hour long nightmare. There was dense fog, zero visibility, no street lights and the roads were more like dirt tracks. All this so that the motorway police could absolve themselves of their responsibility to manage traffic during fog conditions by diverting cars off the motorway.

All developed countries follow strict rules for driving in adverse weather conditions, including fog. It is suggested that traffic be allowed to continue on the motorway with strict rules such as lower speed limits, installation of fog lights and imposing a larger mandatory safe distance between vehicles. Of course, this will require the motorway police to actually be up to the task and there is no excuse for them not to be. We cannot expect drivers to just abandon the motorway every time there are adverse weather conditions.

Air Cdre (r) M Khalid Kamal

Islamabad