Easter Vs. Aidilfitri :)

Assalamualaikum :)..

Reading the newspaper (NZ Herald - Traffic Warning - Stay off the Roads) today made me chilled. The news basically reported the traffic congestion in the long holiday of Easter which is to be expected this weekend. Here in New zealand, apart from Christmas+New Year holidays, Easter holiday is one of the most anticipated holidays. Comparable to Aidilfitri holidays back in Malaysia.

The news of the traffic jam isn't anywhere near shocking to me. The one thing that really got me was the fatal accidents occured yesterday. They claimed 5 people were dead on the road yesterday (and I think it's the nationwide death toll). 5 people loss on the road was quite a big number, as on the last paragraph of the article the author includes a statistics of Easter death toll from 2007; 6 in 2007, 9 in 2008 and 5 up to last night.

I do some googling (yes, google is a verb :p) "kematian kemalangan jalan raya musim perayaan", and I opened harakahdaily webpage, and the news quite disturbing somehow. Not from their political PoV, but from the number of fatalities they recorded on the 1st day of Ops Sikap 12 in 2007 (it's been 12 years the govt lauches the Ops Sikap till '07). There was 25 death toll on the 1st day of Ops Sikap. Nearly 3 times as many as the highest number of deaths for the whole Easter holidays in NZ. It makes sense then the claim that I heard somewhere (which I heard, not listened. a.k.a. I can't remember where I got the info though :p) that 1 of the major preventable death causes in Malaysia apart from health diseases, is road accident. Which is absolutely not a good news to share, and somehow puzzling. Our roads standard isn't bad
(if it's not excellent, compare to the roads here in NZ..hehe), we got a better highway system (apart from the payment of course :p) with places comfortable and safe enough to rest. Still, the fatality rates keep on rising, in the festive seasons especially.

Maybe there're factors which I don't take into account when talking about the road accident rates in Malaysia. Most of the accidents didn't occur on the major highways (PLUS, LPT, etc). The road condition isn't as good outside the major highways. Holes, unproper signs (sometimes confusing, even in the highways..haaih), and the attitude of drivers (which is why they call the operation Ops Sikap).

The public road isn't a good place to show off your skills, to realise the techniques you learnt in Need for Speed, Burnout and dozens more titles. The public road is the place for everyone to use with confidence that they can get to their destination without any worries. It's frustrating to know that there're people who suffered from the accidents which is caused by others insolent way of driving. The responsibity and the respect of others lives should be implanted in the minds of these drivers. They're not just hazarding themselves, but also others who tried their best to keep their family safe in their journeys. Just because you are confident that you'll be safe, doesn't mean you can drive recklessly on the roads as we don't perceive the situation on the roads equally. Bear in mind that we're not all born to drive and be cool on the roads as Karamjit Singh or Muhammad Hafiz (hehe..).

Lesson Learnt:
Drive safely, respect others lives, enjoy the holiday :).

Juz sharin my 2cents :D
Cheers :D :D