Fires and crashes

Two stories in todays papers I thought worth commenting on.

In EmBiz247 we're told that Atlantis will open on schedule on September 24 in spite of the recent fire, pictures of which I posted a couple of weeks ago.

Well, sort of.

We have more detail than we've been given previously about the opening of the $1.5 billion resort on Palm Jumeirah.

The area affected by the fire won't open on schedule, and that's the Lobby. Instead they've set up two temporary lobbies, one in each tower. The real Lobby won't open until mid-October and in the meantime guests will have golf cart shuttles.

Less than half the hotel's 1,539 rooms will open on September 24, only between 600 and 800 will be open on opening day.

Then in The Times there's a report on the dangers of texting while driving, quoting research from Britain's Transport Research Laboratory.

It's worse than drink driving folks.

According to TRL's research, reaction times of texters slows by 35% (drink is 12%), their stopping distance increases by 10 metres at 50kph, their steering control is 91% poorer than drivers actually paying attention to their driving, in other words, they're more prone to drifting out of their lane. As we know from driving on Sheikh Zayed Road. Or on Al Wasl Road as I was this morning, taking evasive action from a Toyota Landcruiser drifting about while the driver concentrated on his mobile phone call.

I hope the police and law makers here have a copy of the research and will act accordingly.



The stories are here:

Atlantis.

Moronic drivers.