Mind the gap

It's quite common in Qatar to be driving down a road you use everyday and suddenly come across some road works that have appeared overnight with no warning. The following article from yesterday's Gulf Times illustrates this perfectly (original version here);

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Lucky escape for family as car falls into deep pit
Published: Wednesday, 30 May, 2007, 08:26 AM Doha Time

Staff Reporter
FOUR members of an Indian family had a providential escape when their car fell into an unbarricaded 11-foot deep pit in the New Salata area on Monday morning.
The pit was dug as part of construction work being carried out by a contracting company. There was neither a sign board warning motorists or passersby nor a barricade net around the pit when the car with its occupants - a man, his wife and their two children - fell into it.
Hearing the trapped family members’ cries for help some construction workers nearby rushed to the spot and with great difficulty pulled them out. All four occupants of the car sustained bruises on their bodies.
The couple were on their way to drop their children at the school when the accident occurred.
Police have registered a case.
There are a number of similar pits in Al Hilal, Mamoura and New Salata areas as part of the ongoing construction activity there.
On May 19, Gulf Times had reported that several such uncovered deep pits in Al Asiri in the Mamoura area could cause serious accidents. The report pointed out that each pit was wide enough to contain a saloon car.
Earlier this month, two Indian expatriates were killed in two separate accidents in the Industrial Area and Al Wakra when the vehicles they were driving fell into uncovered deep roadside ditches.

The car trapped in the 11-foot-deep pit

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