Tuesday, October 12, 2010

10.10.10 - Celebrated Date in A Somber Mood

When the weekend came, I was soooo excited to blog about the trip going to my UNI mate wedding in Johor (9.10.10), group holiday with good old friends.. going to SG together, homestay (which we never did, went to Melaka instead) ... all the planning & excitement was so engulfing.

Then, the Simpang Ampat accident tragedy happened.

Hilang semua mood nak blog about the fun trip earlier. Becoz realizing how close we were to be a part of the tragedy. Dear Allah, alhamdulillah... for the safety of all my friends & my family. Al-Fatihah for those life that has been lost.

I couldn't sleep last night until 4.45am thinking how things were falling into place, keeping us away from danger's path. 
I realized if we did went to SG, we would have taken the highway, speeding away like mad to get back home. 
I realized, if we had not travel together with my old friend's family... we would have take the highway instead of the old trunk road... bcoz we do not know the old roads.
If we hadn't stop for dinner... 
.... timing is everything... fate had laid out its plan, despite what we have planned originally.

I remembered talking to my husband on the way to Kluang, how we would not know what hit us (on coming accident) becoz of the trees planted on the guard rail. It is an eerie feeling realizing how what we spoke came into reality in the next few days.

I cannot help remembering movie scenes from Final Destination.... reading this news also invokes how there's no way of fooling fate nor death. 

At this moment, they do not know why the bus driver had applied emergency brake (20m skid marks) and swerved into the guard rail, going into the opposite oncoming lane. Bus driver had a clean record, bus had undergone PUSPAKOM check in May, top condition. Witness said driver was speeding, then when question again, she said she was sleeping, so how did she knew what was going on? None of the passenger was watching the road? Where was other drivers on the same lane? The bus couldn't be travelling alone.... if it was overtaking a vehicle, which was why passenger may have felt the sudden increase in speed... where was the car that may have caused the tragedy?

While we were driving along the highway, we realize a lot of traveler seem not to understand how city driving cannot be applied on a long distance highway travel. 
There's people who hog the fast lane, people just waltz into the fast lane when there's vehicle coming behind them at a crazy 160km/h .... overtaking at the worst possible timing.... huge vehicle travelling at crazy speed.... there's just too many people with Kopi-O licenses being allowed driving in Malaysia. Driving like they own the road, not even concern with other ppl safety. It is just an attitude problem. Even if the speed limit was 90km/h or even 60km/h.... if you still have clueless idiots on the road ... there's just no point.

Here's my two cents ;

1) Stricter driving license exam. Longer trial/probation period. People with less than 1 year driving experience should not be allowed on highways. Hence, the need to upgrade our public transport. Komuter tu ganti ler... dah ketinggalan zaman la.
2) Teach the different btw city driving & long distance highway travelling.
3) Teach ppl to be considerate. A lot of accidents happens becoz ppl are selfish and are inconsiderate.
4) Show gruesome footage of accidents, drill into student's mind of what WILL happen if you are not responsible. When you are at the steering wheel, you decide the safety of your passenger, you are also responsible of other people on the road that is NOT your family too. THIS CAN & WILL happen to YOU if you/other ppl are not careful on the road.
5) Mental pscyhological exams. Ppl with tendency to get 'amok', bully tendencies, inconsiderate SHOULD NOT be allowed to be in the driver seat at all.
6) Cars should have those GPS/black box. For all, or at least for new drivers... to check on their driving pattern. 
Apa lagi... aku pon tak tahu.... all i know setakat saman org speeding IS NOT helping the situation.


We all pray we have a long life, blessed by Allah... AMIN.

6 comments:

Juju said...

al-fatihah =(

Cik Lily Putih said...

betul lah tu linda, pas dr kejadian tragis tuh, seram jugak nak drive highway PLUS nie, maklumlah hari2 guna ke nilai..

ManjaIxora said...

al fatihah pada yg telah pergi..

Unknown said...

CikLilyPutih,
Drive safely always. Kita pon cuak ajer driving tadi... tgk aje bas, terus bagi dia potong. Gerun weihhh!

Jue, Mazlina,
Amin.

Anonymous said...

dulu kata nak letak blackbox kat bus and lorries..cuba actually enforce black box tu..dalam satu trip if speeding or dangerous driving more than twice potong percentage gaji trip tu ikut berapa kali dia buat. pastu dalam sebulan berapa kali dia drive dangerously kena denda gantung 1 or 2 trip (kira free) or potong gaji..depa ni paham kalu poket die sakit jeer..tapi pasal bus tu mmg ala final destination ngeri i saw the video clip.. heran whoever it was sibuk videotaping the accident aftermath bukan kecoh nak tolong..

my friend yg selalu pakai highway selatan kata kat area tu angin lintang so if bawak laju mmg nahas..i know crosswinds tak leh memain..kapal terbang dgn lori tanker pun buleh terbalik crash etc takat bas express tengah laju mmg ringan sangat nak flip.

alfatihah dan syukur you guys are safe

Unknown said...

so yang aritu punya kes,polis kata pa? Crosswind punya akibat ka?

Takot gak....dah la cek mmg suka speeding kat highway LPT tu (Leboh raya Pantai Timor) ... byk gak signbod beware of crosswind