There are more serious problems causing road fatalities

(Graphics: Courtesy of The Star)
‘Ratings for roads’
New project plans to cut accidents in the country by 30%

This morning’s Sunday Star headline (above)…shows a smiling Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, a picture taken somewhere else, at a time more appropriate than what the grim statistics of road accident victims were about. I have checked Staronline but no sign of his picture which I wanted to use here.

Low standard of driving tests (with rampant cases of fraud), poor vehicle roadworthiness (result of corruption and lack of conscience on the part of owners/drivers, etc.), ineffective enforcement of speed limits, sleepy or unfit commercial vehicle drivers, to name just a few. Someone who had just taken a British driving test said that there is no way anyone could pass the theory exam without actually reading and able to answer the questions! I had personally taken the practical tests twice before passing it 30 years ago, in spite of 10 years of Malaysian driving experience. The most significant part which I can remember to this day, was the vital 'stop, look and go' where the tester would take you to a housing estate and you were supposed to do it, especially at unmarked junctions! Over here, the motorcyclists now do not even follow the traffic lights!

If Plus is sincere, they should invest in more electronic warning signs to warn road users of accidents, so that they can slow down or even change to a different route. The fact that this policy is not forthcoming, I can only surmise that they are more concerned with collecting tolls as an early warning system would effectively divert many cars from the North-South Expressway and revenue would be lost.

As a frequent traveller along NSE, I am either caught in a jam because of an accident, but more often it happened on the other side of the expressway and I could see cars speeding towards the jam and I thought, ‘all heading towards a long wait and frustration’. This is nothing compared with a few instances of ‘accidents which happened a few minutes earlier’ and it was so obvious that it was due to unsuspecting speeding vehicles knocking into accident vehicles already blocking the road. I can understand if it just happened but there was a case which was two days old and yet it caused further accidents.

Just got back from a trip up north today. Just after 12.00 noon, we were about a kilometre before the tunnel (travelling north) and I had a shock while on the slow lane to suddenly see some warning cones before a vehicle which had come to repair a stationary trailer. There were about 10 cones behind them stretching no more than 100 metres! Coming from round a corner, the warning was grossly inadequate and I had to suddenly slow the vehicle and put on the signal to turn away from the slow lane. Had I been speeding, I would have smashed into the vehicle behind the trailer, just like what I had just described above. This poor warning, especially with the use of cones (suggests Plus already assisted) would never have been allowed in Britain as I have seen what seems like a kilometre of cones to warn motorists of any obstruction at any lane.

Plus should impose a higher standard on their contractors doing repair or maintenance works.