If you are a “Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong” (Damansara Puchong or LDP Highway) user, you probably have experienced this danger yourself.
First, this is what happened…
I was cruising along LDP last Sunday, at about 6 pm when I noticed that the 2nd lane was heavy with traffic. The 3rd lane was almost empty, so I switched to the fast lane and was happily bypassing the slower traffic on the 2nd lane.
I noticed something in my rear mirror – a BMW was cruising fast, so I put my foot down the accelerator and hope to be fast enough to have a good gap between me and the BMW and switch back to 2nd lane if there is a window to do so.
As I was doing that, what I saw in front of me horrified me!
A guy was crossing the 3 lane LDP highway and was right in front of me. There was no chance to slam the brakes; I had to brace myself for the worst – a man being slammed by a “100 km/h” car.
Thankfully, I was able to miss him by inches; he managed to run a bit faster to avoid my car.
Growing trend…
Bastards running across the highway when it is illegal to so – most of them are immigrants factory workers who are working on side of the highway and staying on the other.
So, instead of walking to an overhead bridge or pass way, they take the easy way out – direct crossing amidst fast-moving traffic.
I don’t know what the statistics are but it is very likely that it is almost 70% – 80% chance that one of them will be hit by a car and almost 99% that the person will die of serious injuries.
I was pissed off…
If I had hit the bastard last Sunday, I know that I would have walked out from any prosecution for any reckless driving. The bastard should not have crossed the highway in the first place.
But the thing is if I have hit the bastard, it is very likely that I too would have been injured and perhaps this would have caused a bigger accident (more injuries and death) and certainly my car would have been badly wrecked.
All because of one bastard who decided to take the short-cut and was reckless
Other contributory problems…
Then again, if one wondered why these bastards taking the shortcut and putting themselves in danger, look again. Just how many had pedestrian overhead bridge been built by the LDP operator – LITRAK?
Not many and some of the overhead bridges are simply too far away for anyone to be using. Consider the buggers who are working and living on different sides of the highway – they are crossing the highway on a daily basis, sometimes 7 times a week.
Until and unless something is done to stop the “dangerous crossing”, the LDP users have to keep an “extra” eyes out on these dangerous road-crossers.