Western drivers may moan about road humps, but motorists in Saudi Arabia have a more arresting kind of hump to cope with 鈥� the type attached to a camel. Half a million camels roam the Saudi deserts and a high-speed collision with one is a serious matter. They cause 600 accidents a year, killing about 150 people, mostly at night.
Although there are warning signs where camels often cross the road, Ali Al-Ghamdi and his colleagues at the King Saud University, Riyadh, will report in Accident Analysis and Prevention that the standard triangular sign with a pictogram of the beast has no effect. But by doubling the size of the sign and giving it a reflective background, they have persuaded drivers to shave 7 kilometres per hour off their normal average of 86 kilometres per hour.