Sunday May 4, 2008

How hard is it really?

ONE FOR THE ROAD
By SOO EWE JIN

I CAME across this newly installed road sign (pic) on my way home the other day.

Why is such a sign necessary? Surely this is a waste of taxpayers' money. Don't all drivers know that it is an offence to stop in a yellow box?

But observing how people behave on the road, I reckon we may actually need more such signs to remind drivers of what they can and cannot do.

For example, I believe in the principle that pedestrians have right of way over motorists, more so when they are using the pedestrian crossing.

Stating the obvious: Everyone knows that it is illegal to stop at a yellow box but it looks like some may need to be reminded explicitly.

But to be frank, I have been nearly knocked down a few times when I used zebra crossings because most people do not believe they need to stop when people are crossing. A sign, plus a CCTV camera, might teach these drivers to do the right thing.

In a short trip to Penang and back over the weekend, I kept to the legal limit, which made me the slowest driver on the North South Expressway. Everyone, from the express bus driver to the trucker to the young man in a Kelisa, not to mention the big bikers, were just passing me by.

I thought my speedometer was not working but there they were, happily exceeding the speed limit until someone on the other side of the highway flashed their headlights to warn them of a speed trap up ahead.

Well, Malaysian drivers do look out for one another when it comes to eluding speed traps, though it is a different story when there is an accident and slowing down to check out the registration number seems more important than stopping to help.

I was recently issued a traffic summons for parking illegally outside a hospital in Petaling Jaya. It was an emergency and I parked just outside the hospital as taking the car to the multi-storey car park would have caused unnecessary delay for my octogenarian friend.

It was after 9pm on a Sunday and the road was deserted. After my friend was properly warded, which was just after midnight, I came out and saw the ticket on my windscreen.

I broke the law and the hardworking policeman who summoned me should be congratulated for doing his job.

While waiting to pay at the PJ police headquarters, I looked through the list of traffic offences at the back of the ticket.

Not much has changed since I took my driving test many years ago with regards to the list of minor traffic offences as outlined in the Road Transport Act 1987, previously the Road Traffic Ordinance.

These were the offences we committed to memory when we were preparing to take the Highway Code test.

Some examples:

NO PARKING within 30 feet (9m) of either side of a bus stop or opposite such signs;
NO PARKING within 10 feet (3m) of either side of a fire hydrant, standpipe or hydrant ground;
NO PARKING within 30 feet of road junction or corner; and
NO PARKING on any part of a road which has two lines, one continuous and one broken.

I was summoned for the more general offence of “causing unnecessary obstruction on the road”.

As licensed drivers, we also know that we should not stop in a yellow box, that pedestrians have right of way in a zebra crossing, and that amber means “get ready to stop” and not “speed up to beat the lights”.

But on the road, it's much safer to believe that most drivers are blissfully ignorant of these basic traffic rules.

motoring@thestar.com.my