Sosial

Saturday February 26, 2011

Emergency lanes vital

WE REFER to the letter ‘Do we need emergency lanes?’ (The Star, Feb 24). The emergency lanes are meant for the use of emergency service vehicles only.

In the event of a major accident there is a high possibility of traffic congestion. Therefore, the emergency lane serves as a means for emergency service vehicles to reach the accident scene to provide assistance to accident victims quickly.

Road users need to remember that early assistance and medical attention re critical in ensuring the survival of victims.

Every minute lost increases the risk to those injured in accidents. As such, availability of uncongested emergency lanes are vital in ensuring that accident victims receive medical assistance in the shortest possible time frame.

Currently, the average arrival time for emergency assistance in Malaysia is 30–40 minutes and this needs to be reduced to 10–15 minutes arrival in compliance with global best practice.

The issue here is not whether or not we need emergency lanes – we clearly do – but ensuring that emergency lanes serve the purpose they are designed and built for.

We need to ensure that motorists do not encroach into the emergency lane at the first sign of traffic congestion.

With this in mind we need to continuously educate our motorists that illegal use of emergency lanes may result in death of accident victims who may have otherwise survived.

Motorists who are caught abusing the emergency lanes should be fined and severely dealt with.

The Transport Ministry wishes to remind road users that offences regarding the abuse of emergency lanes are classified under the Category 1 critical offences list under the new standardised compound fines jointly agreed to by police (PDRM), Road Transport Department (JPJ) and Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).

DATUK SURET SINGH,

Director-General,

Road Safety Department.