RAIL LEVEL-CROSSINGS ARE DEATH TRAPS

SPEEDING….Train speeding through level-crossing.

THE MINISTER of Infrastructure development Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kittingan said the oil tanker truck driver is to be blamed for the rail road accident recently occurred on a level-crossing to a Shell service station in front of the KKIA.

The tanker driver said that it is not entirely his fault because he did not see the speeding train which was blocked by the big bill board next to the road and the railway track. Furthermore he did not hear any horn sound from the train.

The case is under further investigation and public opinions showed that the railway board is definitely at fault. The KK MP Hiew King Cheu has received many public calls and messages concerning the accident and worries over any other future occurrence of the rail road accidents.

The people are not happy on how the authorities are handling the case of the serious railway accident. The government authorities, especially its Federal Ministry of Transport, the Sabah Ministry of Infrastructure Development, DBKK and Penampang District Council had all just pointing fingers and denied responsibility, but it ended up with the poor oil tanker driver is to be blamed and may be have to pay losses up to RM 0.5 million

It the real fact, the one should be blamed and to be held responsible is none other than the Government. This type of rail road level crossings whether it is illegal or legal will still be the responsibility of the railway board (JKNS).

They have set a ‘death trap’ for victims to be caught and sometimes fatal. The many level-crossings from Tanjong Aru to Kinarut whether they are legal or illegal are waiting for victim to fall prey, and serious accident can happen any place and time. The train hitting the oil tanker truck is just one of the many.

On the so call legal level-crossings, very sorry to say that although there are auto-gates installed but none is functioning and the warning systems like bells and lights are not in operation mode. This was witness by MP Hiew personally many times when he traveled along the Petagas road to Putatan.

The most recent one was on Monday, when he saw a speeding train crossed the level-crossing with only one man blocking the cars from 4 directions just in front the KKIA fly-over turning into the Jalan Lintas. The auto-gates were not in operation and there was no bell or warning light. The whole scene looked dangerous and ridiculous.

Hiew wanted the authorities to stop pointing fingers and sit down to get the problems resolve, this is because there are so many cars, lorry and buses are crossing the railway every minute. If the government does not wish to see any accident happening again, it is better for them to come up with some quick solution to the situation and most important is to save lives.