The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) has proposed for crash impact absorbing road safety dividers on the East Coast Expressway 2 (LPT2) due to frequent accidents at the highway, Bernama reports.
The institute’s road safety engineering and environment research centre director Dr Siti Zaharah Ishak said improvements such as “crash cushions” equipped with safety features could reduce impact in a crash. She added that the use of road dividers without the crash cushion could lead to fatality in a high speed crash onto the final terminal, and that such cushions could help reduce the risk of serious injury.
Dr Siti was responding to the frequent accidents on LPT2 since it opened in January last year, including Sunday’s incident involving Bernama Editor-in-Chief Datuk Zakaria Abdul Wahab at Km 395.4 of the highway near Ajil, Terengganu.
Zakaria and his driver Mior Hasmazi Isa were returning to Kuala Lumpur from Terengganu when the accident occurred during a heavy downpour at 4.30pm. Zakaria’s Proton Perdana was believed to have skidded before being hit by another car that was trailing behind. Zakaria was taken to Hulu Terengganu Hospital for treatment and is in stable condition. His driver escaped unhurt.
Dr Siti also proposed having speed cameras like the Automatic Enforcement System (AES) to clamp down on speedsters, and endorsed electronic stability control (ESC) to avoid vehicles from spinning out of control.
A study done in October 2015 found that 65% of vehicles on the LPT2 were driven over the speed limit of 110 km/h, with the maximum speed being 179 km/h (they must have missed this Porsche Cayenne!). The average speed for passenger cars was 129 km/h, and heavy vehicles at 93 km/h.
The highway’s concession holder, LPT 2 Sdn Bhd, said that it pays serious attention on the safety of highway users. General manager Husni Md Yusuf said since the company took over the management of the highway operations from the Terengganu state government on July 15 this year, various measures had been taken to improve safety.
“These include repairing the road pavement as soon as possible at the locations identified, upgrading the road surface at 10 locations identified on the highway in stages beginning this month. In addition, LPT2 also continues to carry out monitoring and repair the damaged highway fences for public safety,” he said in a statement to Bernama.
Husni also urged the public to not damage fences along the highway as it could lead to animals entering the highway and causing accidents. He said LPT2 provided patrolling teams to provide assistance to motorists having problems on the highway and conducted joint operations with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks.
“In addition, LPT2 also conducts law enforcement activities with the police periodically to ensure the speed limit on the LPT2 is adhered to by the motorists,” he explained, adding that the public could call the LPT2 24-hour helpline at 1800 88 0220 to seek assistance in case of any emergency.
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Clap… clap… clap…
Ooo yeah… just like we thought before…
Action will be taken when datuk datin nenek apak diorang sudah kena…
When the marhaens kena, nobody cares…
Question is…
Can tin soya bean UMW Toyota and Perodua take it?
Any car also can do very high speed what (i.e. 160 – 180 km/h), however for Poodua (and also any car without VSC), once go 100 km/h and above, you’re traveling on a ‘deadly red zone’ on speedometer figure.
Having driven on LPT2 on several occasions, what they need is permanent speed cameras below overhead bridges or the way they are implementing it now on North South Highway. Then implement a system where they can only renew their road tax online and print the receipt to collect at post offices/mail to their home. This way they cant rely on duit kopi to settle and will have to follow the rules. Road block then would be duit kopi haven for cops.
Best solution is to remove all form dividers on highways in this country because reckless & heartless drivers here always love to end up their life & love ones with style on the road
Shouldn’t MIROS be concentrating on collision mitigating instead of having “cushiony barriers”.
Ironic that only after “someone” had an accident that they release a statement.
Does the Perdana that the Editor was in have ESC? Does the car behind that hit them have ESC? Were both of them speeding? Why don’t MIROS spend its resources lobbying the government and car manufacturers to include ESC as standard on all cars sold here instead?
The other problem is speed…especially speeding in inappropriate weather conditions. We all know all these people speed on the highways, especially VIPs which assume they are above the law. I once shadowed a BMW 7er with probably some government VIP (since when were 7ers standard issue anyway? )to over 180 on the NSE.
The main problem with the highway is that the road is not uniform / bumpy. They should re-assess the road quality and worthiness before they even open the highway in the first place. How can they even be so blind when it comes to this. It’s their jobs, and are we suppose to tell them what to do?
Building highway is one thing, but the total cost being put to make one is the other. I have driven there once, and it is quite scary, especially at night. Fencing on the side of the highway is not there, any animals can cross through. Bad project planning it seems.
Speeding RECKLESSLY is the no. 1 cause of accidents! Driving SLIGHTLY over the speed limit with powerful cars SAFELY doesn’t cause so much accidents.
Keyword ; reckless plus inconsiderate to fellow road users with zero respect are main problems in 1MDB Land no matter what techies equipped with one car