In Malaysia, the misuse of emergency lanes is a serious traffic offense. According to Rule 53 (1) of the Road Traffic Rules 1959, driving in the emergency lane is prohibited unless it is a genuine emergency. Violators are subject to stringent penalties under Section 119 (2) of the Road Transport Act 1987, which may include a fine of up to RM2000 or imprisonment for up to six months.
To any politicians, officials, and police officers who have said that any motorist found abusing the emergency lanes will be slapped with a summons without any mercy, well go screw yourself because it is not happening. Not when I was looking and capturing the “crime” on camera!
Highway Traffic Jam
Yesterday I was driving back from Taiping and just when I was near Gopeng, I found myself stuck in a long traffic jam – was it an accident or a roadblock, I asked myself as I went into a lumbering slow drive.
The jam was as far as my eyes could see and there was nothing to indicate what the cause of the traffic jam was. So, I drove slowly, hoping to quickly pass whatever that was causing the traffic jam for there was still a long way to home.
Emergency Lane Offenders
What started as a 2 ‘legal’ lane, it ended up as 3 lanes with selfish buggers using the emergency lanes to bypass the crawling traffic jam! With these selfish buggers taking to the emergency lane, the legal lanes seem to be getting slower even more. At one point, all 3 lanes were NOT moving, so imagine if an ambulance or a fire truck had to use the lanes to reach the accident scene.
Thanks to the selfish buggers on the emergency lane, the emergency vehicles would not have moved at all. I was just hoping for a roadblock-up in front. After a long drive, we finally saw what caused the traffic jam – a truck had hit the barrier and was left on the middle of the road.
Inaction By Officials
I was on the fast lane and we were stopped by PLUS officials – the buggers at the emergency lane tried to drive through but the PLUS official stopped the buggers too. He let the slow lane go through first, followed by the fast lane interchangeably. The vehicles on the emergency lane were still kept on hold but other than that, nothing else was done on those buggers on the fast lane.
If the officials had listened properly, they would have heard my shouting in the car – “Summon them, all of them!” At the same time, my wife was taking pictures of the official and buggers at the emergency lane. We needed the evidence, didn’t we? This has been noticed by the official who shouted at someone at the accident scene. It was a highway patrol officer.
Final Say
All the while, many have talked about the punishment meted out to those who have been abusing the emergency lane. So, here we have the perfect scenario – a highway patrol officer and a long stretch of abusers of the emergency lane.
What an easy way for the police to generate some income for the government? After all, didn’t the police have some funding problems to equip their officers with the latest equipment? For the highway patrol, perhaps some ultra-fast Protons? Well think about it, there were easily 30 cars (there are more of course) on the emergency lane – RM300 x 30 = RM9,000 (not much but not a small amount either, especially to the drivers) – RM9,000 easy money!
So, we had this highway patrol officer with 30 buggers on the emergency lane – what would have been the RIGHT thing to do? I recap – the RIGHT thing! Guess what was the ‘right thing’ that this officer did? The officer casually let off the buggers on the emergency lane to drive through! No summons, no warning whatsoever. Sigh.
So, next time anyone talks about enforcement of the rules on the emergency, I suggest that they don’t waste their breath.
uugghh…hate those types of people indeed. sad part is, as you said nothing is done. they should put those nail-strips so that if the enforcers are too lazy, the strips will do their job for half the cost 😛
Cheers!!! 😀
I was driving from Shah Alam to KL this morning at around 7:30 a.m. during peak hours and on the Federal Highway, just after Subang Jaya heading towards Kelab Golf Negara Subang (KGNS),there were two traffic policemen on duty and they were actually directing traffic on the left most lane to use the emergency lane just after the turn to the old airport road. So, I diligently followed his instructions and not that I want to break the law. What else can I say?
On the way back after I finished my business at around 11.30 a.m. just before reaching Kuen Cheng Girls School driving toweards PJ, on my right (the fast lane) a woman police officer driving a silver metallic Proton Waja with the label ‘kereta penyiasat’ was happily using her handphone to send messages and I honked at her. When she looked at me, I indicated to her that it’s wrong to do that but she just didn’t care and continued to use her handphone. If some ‘awam’ fellow did that and a policeman notices it, he will surely be stopped and given a RM300.00 summon. I will make an official complaint about this one.
Ya sometimes the “officials” themselves abuse the very law that they need to enforce…I have seen many times police car using the emergency lanes (no, they did not have the siren on) just because they do not want to get stuck in the traffic jam. Perhaps they may have an urgent business to attend to but in the eyes of the public, that means setting a bad example.