Terror ride

On a lazy Saturday morning, I had one assignment to do - deliver my parents' passports to them by hand from KL to hometown. They have forgotten that they need to go to Singapore, after applying for US visas on Tuesday.

I board the bus at 10am. The weather deteriorated all the way from KL to north. Somewhere in between Tapah and Ipoh, we managed to avoid a speed trap. However, moments after exiting the Jelapang toll, we were stopped by police. I'm not sure whether it was a speed trap or what, all buses were stopped at that point. That was the hilly terrain between Jelapang and Kuala Kangsar.

5 minutes later we were on our way again. 2 or 3 minutes later, the next thing I saw was our bus driver stepping on the breaks, at full force. The back of a big trailer started to fill up the windscreen. Due to the rain and the slope we were at, our bus just kept slipping towards the trailer. For a while it was scary. But I realised we were merely slipping so it wont' result in a big crash. Seconds later, the bus hit the trailer. Just a small touch, resulting in cracks on the left windscreen.

I looked further to find out why the trailer had suddenly stopped. Right in front of the trailer, there were two vehicles - one red proton iswara aeroback and the other one a 4-wheel drive facing the opposite direction - an accident. A mak cik came out from one of the vehicles and fell down immediately. She must have injured he leg or ankle. The bus driver and the trailer driver decided that each should be responsible for their own loss. Seeing that no one is seriously injured, we moved on. The bus driver stopped twice on the emergency lane to inspect the windscreen to ensure it's safe for us to travel.

Immediately after Kuala Kangsar, there was a traffic standstill in front. The sky was pouring at that time. I knew it must be another accident. True enough. This time involving 3 cars. One of them is quite badly dented but luckily no one seem to be seriously injured.

From then onwards our bus sped all the way back to destination. It was quite a scary experience especially in heavy rain. However, we managed to arrived unscathed.

I witnessed two accidents today and one the night before.

Malaysians have one of the highest road accident rates in the world, despite our good infrastructure. It just goes to show how bad our drivers are. It's not about the skills, more about the attitude - selfishness, carelessness and lack of courtesy. As long as these negative attitudes are not checked, we will continue to live in a country with first class infrastructure complemented by law of the jungle.