Authorities need to draw up SOP to improve road safety and quality check of auto parts
ACCIDENTS involving heavy vehicles crashing through steel or reinforced concrete median barriers and smashing into oncoming vehicles, have been regularly reported in recent years.
Many lives have been lost and surviving victims are left permanently scarred from such catastrophic crossover collisions.
The most recent was a five- vehicle crash involving a tour bus, two lorries, a multi-purpose vehicle and a car along the North-South Highway near Ayer Keroh, Melaka, two days before Christmas.
Seven people, including five members of one family, lost their lives while 33 sustained injuries.
The mishap reminded me of a similar crash in October 2010, which coincidentally took place a short distance from the Dec 23 crash site.
Thirteen people died and 40 others were injured when an express bus ploughed through a median barrier and crashed into oncoming traffic.
Following the Dec 23 crash, the authorities, as per standard operating procedure (SOP), vowed to probe the cause, with preliminary findings attributing it to a dislodged tyre from a trailer lorry.
While that is only to be expected, the authorities must look at the bigger picture and consider other pressing matters that always result from such accidents.
First, those in charge of our highways and expressways need to look at ways to prevent vehicles from breaching median barriers, what more with the speed they are being driven.
Accidents involving heavy vehicles can happen easily due to tyre and brake malfunctions, broken steering wheels or axles, driver fatigue and electrical or mechanical problems.
The barriers made of concrete, cables or guardrails must have been designed after much research but more must be done to further improve these structures, particularly along stretches with heavy traffic or often used by commercial vehicles.
For a country with thousands of kilometres of expressways, engineers and road safety experts need to look at barrier designs and create a foolproof system, even if this will involve a huge investment.
Again, this brings to mind two recent accidents where heavy vehicles had crashed through the median barrier.
On Oct 12 last year, a driver of a tanker lorry lost control and veered into the opposite lane of the northbound North-South Highway Central Link (Elite Expressway) near Nilai, Negri Sembilan, and collided with other vehicles.
Fortunately, there were no casualties.
On Nov 12, 2022, a trailer lorry driver lost control of his vehicle on the North-South Highway near Nilai, jumped the barrier and ploughed into five vehicles. The driver lost his life in the crash.
It would be unimaginable if these lorries had collided with, say, a bus carrying schoolchildren or a convoy of vehicles carrying holidaymakers.
Secondly, the authorities, especially highway concessionaires, must look at ways to quickly disperse traffic once a stretch is no longer passable following a multi-vehicle crash.
For example, I know of people who were stuck along North-South Highway for up to eight hours following the Dec 23 crash.
A relative who was returning home from Melaka, exited Ayer Keroh toll plaza after 10pm to get back to Seremban but only reached home around 6am the following day.
The Ayer Keroh Fire Department had received a report of the accident around 8.45pm that day but many motorists were still allowed to get onto the North-South Highway, which was no longer passable, well after 10pm.
The highway concessionaire’s emergency response team should have closed the affected stretch promptly so that motorists would not have been left stranded for hours.
Updates should have been sent out via the many platforms available.
Imagine if a patient en route to a hospital for an emergency or people who had flights to catch at Kuala Lumpur International Airport were stuck in that horrendous standstill traffic.
What if there were senior folks in need of urgent medication or families with special children stuck in their cars for hours?
Or people who simply had important engagements but were instead forced to switch off their vehicle engines and wait hours for traffic to clear?
Thirdly, the authorities must look at the quality of vehicle parts.
Commercial vehicle and transport operators claim that some parts, including nuts and bolts − whether made locally or imported − are inferior.
Who checks the quality or durability of these parts?
Is there any agency doing so and endorsing them so that they are safe for use?
Finally, do we have an effective air ambulance service that can be immediately deployed in times of emergency when access to victims is limited from ground level?
Based on media reports, the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department launched its first helicopter ambulance service called Emergency Medical Air Rescue Services (Emars) in April 2023.
The department had said that Emars would be used to transfer victims from hospital to hospital and facilitate access to services for residents in rural areas, especially the Orang Asli community.
In my opinion, the service should also be utilised to provide prompt medical evacuation especially when there are major accidents?
The Health Ministry must also be aware of this as quick response can save more lives.
It is high time experts from relevant ministries, government agencies and highway concessionaires sat down to formulate new SOP to make our roads safer, quickly disperse traffic in the event of an accident, ensure the injured are swiftly sent to hospital and motor vehicle parts are of good quality, if we are serious about reducing road fatalities.