ALARM & OBSESSION-MOTORCYCLISTS Deaths; WHY Spent Millions on MOTORCYCLE Lanes? Playing God, Avoiding deaths; No one "dies" before His or Her Time

Going hand in hand with the notion that avoiding accidents would avoid deaths imply also a lack of understanding of death. Death is greatly misunderstood as being the end of it all, of coming too soon.

No one "dies" before his or her time. The choice , manner and time of death are always yours. When the soul is ready to release the body, when it has accomplished what it came here to do, it moves on. Therefore, in this case, these motorcyclists were ready. WHY this big obsession and alarm with motorcyclists deaths? There ARE MORE people being born in MALAYSIA than dying. Why this alarm? Economic loss? If everyone lived up to the ripe old age, it would be more expensive for the government in terms of health care.

Their daily dare devil stunts in reckless riding may reveal that they hold the strong belief that old age represents a degradation of the spirit and an insult to the body. Slow death in a hospital or an experience with an illness in old age would be unthinkable to this group of people.
What is their choice? They would prefer to choose the experience – the drama, even the terror when that occurs - to die young like a hero and leave physical life in a blaze of perception on a motorcycle; battling for your life at a point of challenge, “fighting” and not acquiescent like those who prefer to go away in a disaster.

In the first place, we shouldn't call most unintentional injuries "accidents." as being practiced in the States. To do so implies that they are random occurrences that could not have been foreseen or prevented. Unintentional injuries (the preferred term) can be prevented, or at least made less likely by better road engineering, safer vehicles, lower speed limits, and abstention from drinking and driving. These improvements and others have led to continuing decreases in US death rates from all types of motor vehicle crashes, with one exception: those involving motorcyclists.
Deaths on motorcycles have increased 54% since 1997. Per mile traveled, the number of deaths on motorcycles is more than 25 times greater than that in cars. Much of this difference is due to the unique vulnerability of motorcycle riders because of motorcyclists' lack of visibility to other drivers. In a study, motorcyclists wearing any reflective or fluorescent clothing had a 37% lower risk of being involved in a crash than those not wearing such clothing. If the driver's helmet was reported to be white or light colored, the risk was 19% less. And use of daytime headlights was associated with a 27% decreased risk.
Now more motorcyclists’ death in Ops Sikap and Works Ministry is quick to respond to build more motorcycle-lanes in ALL new roads to reduce these deaths. This is just like playing God, avoiding deaths. Why this obsession with a one-track mind to solve this problem. As if the separate lanes would prevent all these deaths.

Learn from published data in the States. They have done enough R & D and there is NO NEED to set up the Safety Research Institute and tried to reinvent an "octogonal" wheel in Malaysia - and this will SURELY prevent all deaths as the motobikes would move slowly! But what do we have? The Works Ministry treat this as another great opportunity for class F contractors to pocket in more money. RM300 million estimate to build these lanes and as usual the final tally would be another mark up of 70% coming to a more realistic final cost of RM500 million.

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Traffic police out in force against law-breaking motorcyclists

24 Feb 2007; Alang Bendahara; ; NST

KUALA LUMPUR, SAT.: More than 2,500 summonses were issued to motorcyclists nationwide in less than 24 hours, confirming what the police always suspected — that motorcyclists are serial traffic offenders. The figures came about after police mounted 80 roadblocks nationwide from 6pm yesterday to try and knock some sense into motorcyclists who always top the list of road fatalities.

Federal traffic chief Datuk Nooryah Md Anvar lamented: “These motorcyclists know the law, yet they persist in ignoring them. “Despite highlighting the number of fatalities, despite taking all possible precautions to ensure the safety of motorcyclists, these are the very people who have no qualms in breaking traffic rules.” More than 5,000 motorcyclists were stopped at roadblocks and screened. They would have broken every law in the book. At least 16 were also arrested after failing their urine tests.

They were believed to have been high on drugs when checked. “Now it seems that it makes more sense having special operations only for motorcyclists. We have tried everything else.” Nooryah had launched the three-day operation against motorcyclists yesterday after statistics during on the ongoing Ops Sikap XII showed that motorcyclists and pillion riders recorded the highest number of deaths.

To date, 183 fatalities were reported in the ongoing operation, with motorcyclists and pillion riders topping the list with 107 deaths. Yesterday’s Ops Sikap figures were not encouraging as 882 accidents were reported nationwide. Four deaths occurred on federal roads, three on state roads, three on municipal roads and one other roads. Five of the fatalities involved motorcyclists, one pillion rider, two car drivers and three pedestrians. And yesterday alone, police issued a total of 11,723 summonses to motorists for various offences.

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Watch Towers “BN project” for the government using the taxpayer’s money.

Can you trust the road concessionaires to build something safe? When police mooted the idea for more effective enforcement; the visible presence of police personnel would be strongly felt by road users and would deter motorists from flouting the laws, watch towers were built last Feb. They were left unused and un-maintained throughout the year. And now with Ops Sikap 12, the police tried using them again (see pics) and 5 were found to be unsafe.

When they climbed up some of these “scaffolding structures with wooden platforms and ladders, the swaying of structures could be felt.. And when the wind blow against the canvas, the structures started to sway further and frighten the daylights out of the police personnel and the IGP instructed them to monitor at road levels. And the complaints go to the Works Ministry and of course they were to be demolished and the taxpayers were to pick up the tabs again for these 14 NEW TOWERS (14 X RM100,000 =1.4 Million after completion and the leakages, the bill would most probably to be rounded off to RM2 Million) Now how effective would these towers be? 14 of them on Federal, state & municipal and there are 17,500 km of Federal roads. It would be better to make more life size and realistic “police dummies and deploy them (and changing the placing locations) along the accident prone areas.

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February 23, 2007 15:36 PM

New Federal Roads To Have Motorcycle Lane

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 (Bernama) -- All new federal roads will have special lanes for motorcycles to reduce fatalities involving motorcyclists and pillion riders in road accidents, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said. As for existing federal roads, he said, the motorcycle lane would be built if there was still reserve land at the location and availability of funds. He said the Public Works Department had been instructed to submit a proposal on the building of special lanes for motorcycles on all federal roads as well as to identify the "killer-stretch" and cost of the project.

"It is not going to be like before by only drawing lines on the left and right side of the road to separate the lane for motorcyclists. This time, the lane for motorcyclists will be away from the main road," he told reporters after opening a fly-over linking Jalan Ipoh to Jalan Duta here. Due to land scarcity in Kuala Lumpur, Samy Vellu said it would be a problem to build additional lane for motorcyclists at existing roads in Kuala Lumpur adding that at present, the Federal Highway, from Jalan Pantai to Klang, already had separate lane for motorcyclists. He said the government felt the need to have special lane for motorcyclists following a finding that it could reduce fatalities involving motorcycle riders from 60 per cent to 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, sources from the ministry said the proposed building of the motorcycle lanes, estimated to cost RM300 million, would be submitted to the Cabinet after several issues on the matter were to be resolved. Roads in Kuala Lumpur which recorded high accident rate death like Jalan Kepong-Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Kuching and Jalan Cheras will be given priority for building of motorcycle lanes. The government is also considering widening existing federal roads, stretching 17,500 km, from two lanes to four lanes. On the bypass between Jalan Ipoh and Jalan Duta which was opened to traffic yesterday, Samy Vellu said it was among steps taken by the government to reduce traffic congestion in the city.
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February 22, 2007 19:12 PM

Temporary Watchtowers Will Be Demolished If Unsafe

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 (Bernama) -- The Public Works Department (PWD) will demolish all temporary traffic watchtowers immediately if checks reveal that they pose a safety hazard. "The 14 watchtowers erected by the road concession-aires last Feb 17 had been inspected by the PWD and efforts were made to reinforce them to ensure safety,"

Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu told reporters after chairing the MIC central working committee meeting here Thursday. He was commenting on a report that five of the temporary watchtowers meant for traffic police to monitor the highways and roads during Ops Sikap XII are not safe. Worried for the safety of his men, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Musa Hassan had on Tuesday directed them not to use the watchtowers until the PWD has conducted checks to certify that they are safe.

ABOVE: The base of a watch tower (if the Scrap dealers are working hard, they would make the base unsafe by removing some braces) BELOW: an officer climbing up "testing" its safety

Musa said the temporary five watchtowers deemed unsafe were in Selangor, Penang, Perak, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan. He said the watchtower at Km 16, Jalan Tampin-Gemas was made of steel used for scaffolding with a canvas roofing and policemen had to climb two wooden stairs with a plywood base supported by pieces of wood.

ABOVE: Nearing the top, the officier must be having "soft knees" at the height and BELOW: The officer at the top; shaking p with the tower "swaying". How can they hold the camera steady. Perhaps the real reasons they abandon these towers are that 1. It is damn hot up there 2. Tiring to climb up & down for refreshements 3. How to piss on the top except onto bottles? 4. It is a graveyard assignment 5. scare of heights

Samy said such watchtowers had been erected since 2005 and no safety problem had been reported. He added that the PWD was in the process of building permanent watchtowers slated for completion by April 7. To date, two permanent watchtowers at routes FT14 Dungun and FT03 Marang, in Terengganu have been completed.

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February 11, 2007 15:48 PM
Watch Towers For Federal, State And Municipal Roads To Monitor Traffic

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 (Bernama) -- The government is erecting 14 permanent watch towers along federal, state and municipal roads in peninsular Malaysia to monitor the traffic in `Ops Sikap 12' which starts Sunday. Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said the towers, which cost less than RM100,000 each, had been approved by the Cabinet last Wednesday and were being built by the JKR.

"This is the first time watch towers are being built along the federal, state and municipal roads. Previously, they were only erected along the highways, and were used for the subsequent Ops Sikap."The locations have been identified," he told reporters after presenting Chinese New Year angpows and goodies to some 210 elderly poor people at Wisma MCA, Selayang Branch near here, today.

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