LETTER | Lawlessness on roads must stop

LETTER | This year-end holiday season with the easing of interstate travel is turning out to be a nightmare and daredevil sojourn on our roads. 

Lawlessness is everywhere on our highways, day and night, as the roads get filled with an endless stream of motor vehicles.

Express buses do not keep left, instead, they speed on the right lanes, while heavy commercial lorries speed and hog the middle lanes, as well as recklessly switch between them.

High-end and bigger cars seem to think that their machines must outperform other road users as they speed even on rainy days leaving a trail of spraying water. 

It is strange that on a round trip to Penang and Kuala Lumpur one does not even spot a single police patrol car plying the route on duty. Is it a coincidence?

It is indeed very frightening that at the rate commercial vehicle drivers are beating time on our highways to earn an extra buck, soon innocent, working-class private motorway users will find it too nerve wrecking to drive and be safe.

Despite decades of talking, we failed to change the payment scheme of long-distance commercial vehicle drivers and attenders.

Fast cars that are increasingly common compared to ten years ago are noticeably getting into high-speed chases on the highways especially at night.

When will we turn around this dangerous road behaviour among citizens? The police have tried roadblocks. Various operations and warnings by the police have taught us nothing really.

Taxpayers' money has been spent on installing speed tracking cameras. But we are not too sure if such devices are working as road users do not seem to care anymore.

Meanwhile budget cuts are affecting road users. Our highways are seeing more patch work these days. And the reflective safety demarcations on the surface are hardly reflective.

When it rains it just gets worse given the lack of proper lighting along uneven roads and puddles of slow draining and stagnant pools. 

Perhaps it is time to courageously conclude that Malaysian road users need the long arm of the law to change strategies and business operators using the highways must own up to a long-overdue overhaul of operations.

One suggestion is for the police to implement intensive mobile patrolling on all highways 24 hours. This may be a tall order as the government is depleting its resources and allocations in these times of economic struggles.

But road safety cannot wait for economic rebounds. Even during our golden past eras, road safety was put on the back burner.

To circumvent the constraints, highway operators, road work contractors, motor vehicle insurance companies and all related businesses with a vested interest and highway users should converge to set up a national funding mechanism to subsidise a special mobile patrol unit nationwide.

Even if all road users have to pay an additional one ringgit to their annual road tax so be it to generate capital to operate adequate police patrol and visible police presence on highways.

If we do not do something innovatively and drastically at a national policy level, we will be known the world over as the most dangerous road users. Perhaps we already are.

Worse, ordinary citizens will not be able to enjoy safe driving on the road.

Will our politicians stop their obsession with power grabbing and please go take a drive yourself with your families to see and experience the reality on the ground? 

Drive around at length, day and night, to get a grasp of how difficult it is to drive these days.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.