Breakneck speeds recorded during Ops Sikap

PETALING JAYA (Sept 4, 2011): An express bus travelling at 130km/h, a container lorry at 125km/h, a Mercedes Benz at 220km/h, a BMW at 240km/h, a Honda Accord at 190km/h and a Perodua Myvi at 180km/h.

These were the astonishing speed of vehicles captured by the traffic police’s speed detection cameras on Malaysian expressways recently.

No wonder the death toll in each Ops Sikap keeps increasing and show no signs of coming down.

A Federal Traffic Police official disclosed these startling speeds to theSun today.

“Expresses buses and lorries pose the most danger by over-speeding and we found more than 50% of these heavy vehicles going above the 90km/h speed limit,” said the traffic police official.

“It is quite scary to think of the consequences if these speeding heavy vehicles get out of control. Many lives will be lost,” he said.

The official also disclosed that many expresses buses were ‘modified’ to travel at high speed and this was done, in most cases, with the bus company management’s knowledge.

“Despite countless reminders to go slow, our express bus drivers, lorry drivers and car drivers refuse to go slow.”

“There was an instance where we found a chartered express bus overtaking a car using the third lane at the South-bound lane of the North-South Expressway. And the bus was travelling at 110km/h.

“Almost a dozen of vehicles were piling up behind the bus, waiting for it to overtake the car which was travelling on the second lane, “said the official.

“Another cause of concern was cars weaving in and out of lanes, including overtaking other cars using the emergency lane.

“Some irresponsible drivers change lanes as if they are on a Formula One circuit with absolutely no regards for the safety of other motorists or even themselves.

“And then there are some who just love to tailgate, some even at speeds of more than 130km/h with just a few inches away from the car in front of them,” he said.

"Unless drivers change their attitudes, accidents will continue to increase and lives will continue to be lost on Malaysian roads,” he added.

The latest statistics from Ops Sikap 24, on Saturday, recorded a total of 184 road accident fatalities in the 10 days since the campaign was launched by police during Hari Raya.

Federal traffic police deputy chief, ACP Mohd Fuad Abd Latiff said the road fatality rate had gone up by 6% compared to the same period during Ops Sikap Hari Raya last year with 13,399 road accidents reported so far.

Ops Sikap Hari Raya 2011 ends on Tuesday is expected to present a very high number road fatalities.

Link: thesundaily.my