By Loh Keng Fatt
Copy Editor
kengfatt@sph.com.sg

 

LORRIES and pick-up trucks which carry workers are a scary lot on our roads.

I drive along Jalan Buroh, West Coast Road and West Coast Highway almost daily in the late evenings, and I have learnt to be very wary of them.

Many of them are always in a great hurry.

They certainly travel well in excess of 70 to 80 km/h (that’s my speed) and they are always overtaking me.

When I’m in the extreme right lane, I see them in my rear-view mirror, gaining on me at an alarming rate. 

When the drivers are not flashing their high beams to badger me to get out of their way, they play bully and tail-gate you - closely, very closely.

I always give way and filter to another lane.

And when they zoom by, I steal a glance at the driver and he seems to be in a grim, determined mood, to rush his passengers to wherever they go to - workplace or lodging house.

As for the folks he’s ferrying - I see mainly workers from India, Bangladesh or China – look like they are enjoying life in the fast lane, with their faces flushed and the wind whipping their hair and clothes around them.

Perhaps, they have never thought that they could be the victims of an accident if the driver were to lose control.

I relate this because of the recent deaths of four workers in an accident where a truck slammed into a trailer.

Subsequently, there have been calls to ban the use of lorries to move workers around.

The authorities are reportedly doing a study on the issue.

But whichever means of transport or safety features ultimately get the nod, the fact remains that many accidents are, and will be, caused by undesirable driving habits.

You can put in safety bars, seat-belts, whatever, but damage and injuries will still result if drivers think that, after the sun goes down, they can drive as though they are F1 superstars.

On the West Coast Highway, they weave in and out of lanes and cut into the path of others. The drivers will take just any gap that opens in traffic in their manic bid to nose ahead of other vehicles.

I must add that many car drivers also do the same but they don’t have the lives of up to 30 to 40 people in their hands, based on the capacity of some lorries I note.

Sometimes, I wonder if the driver is paid by consignment and is therefore in a rush to complete the job, before rushing back to take on another load of workers.

So what can be done? The cops cannot always be on patrol to snuff out such dangerous behaviour.

Is it possible to rig the engines so that the trucks can go only so fast - say 55 km/h?

Whatever the answers are, the overriding challenge cannot be ignored: How do we get these drivers to go slower and steadier?