When you’re driving, pay attention to those traffic lights

This is a timely public service announcement. As the Malaysians Unite For Road Safety Day approaches (090909), I’d like to share a tip: no matter what, always pay attention to the traffic lights. It seems simple enough, but not enough people obey them.

And then there’s the case of two traffic lights in succession on a stretch of road, too close to each other. That can lead to the situation I found myself in last weekend. On the way back from a Ramadan bazaar in Bangsar, I stopped at a red light at the corner of Jalan Maarof and Jalan Bangkung. I was there a couple of seconds before I noticed a car approaching in my rear-view mirror. It was moving far too fast, and I thought it was your typical Malaysian driver who would stop dramatically right behind the car in front of them. He was coming too fast though, so I pressed down on the car horn, but it was too late. He rammed into me.



No one in our car was hurt, even though it was quite a knock. When I got out of the car, the young driver also came out, looking quite sheepish. I’ll admit I was babbling at him, admonishing him for not noticing the red light, and then switching to asking if everyone in his car was alright. We pulled over to the side road to talk through things.

His car:



Our car, from the rear:



And from the side:



As you can see, it wasn’t so bad. The bumper dropped, and the rear door was jammed shut.

Of course, the front of his car was totaled:



This is what happens when you don’t pay attention to the road. If I had been in the outside lane, I may have moved to the side. But I can’t be certain, because it all happened just too fast to react.

I noticed in that second before the impact that he wasn’t looking in front. His face was turned and he was chatting with his girlfriend in the front passenger seat. Since the traffic light just before had been green, he must have assumed the next one would be green too. It could have been worse though. I'm not sure if everyone in his car was wearing seatbelts, because I noticed a crack in his windsheild. His girlfriend may have knocked her head there, but there was no obvious injury. The girl in the back though (his sister?) had her kneed jammed into the back of the driver’s seat, and said it hurt. I advised them to get everything checked out.

Good thing we bought food at the bazaar. We got back home in time to break fast, although rice had to be cooked at the last minute. As for them – well, I noticed there was a lot of spilled McDonald’s food in the car which they had to dump. And I’m not sure they made it home in time, because when we parted it was already almost 7pm. On the phone, I don’t think he shared with his dad just how bad the damage was, since his dad told him to drive the car home...