I fully sympathise with accessory shopowner from Teluk Intan, Cheah Yok Eng, 36, who has lost his right eye after a stone-throwing incident along the North-South Expressway near Behrang south of Ipoh last Friday midnight.
Cheah was returning to Teluk Intan after attending a meeting and dinner in Kuala Lumpur and was driving at 110 km per hour, when a stone, the size of his fist, crashed through the windshield.
As reported in the New Straits Times front-page story today, apart from losing his right eye, he also sustained a broken nose and a slight injury to the left eye, and “despite the intolerable pain”, he slammed on the brakes and brought the vehicle to a halt. Two other friends were in the car then.
Cheah was certain the stone was thrown by someone from a flyover near Behrang. A stone thrown from the roadside would definitely lack the force of a stone thrown from a high elevation from a flyover!
This is not the first time where serious injuries had been sustained by motorists on the North-South Expressway because of stone-throwing by irresponsible elements at flyovers. This is also a gross breach of contract on the part of PLUS, which had promised a “safe” journey to all motorists for imposing hefty toll charges along the North-South Expressway.
PLUS should compensate all motorists up to RM100,000 who are injured on North-South Highway because irresponsible stone-throwing arising from failure of proper safety safeguards at Highway flyovers, as PLUS should have ample time to realise that the flyovers are danger spots to the safety of motorists on the Expressway.
PLUS should not stand on technicalities of the law and compensate Cheah all his medical expenses as well as an ex gratia sum for the damages sustained by Cheah, and take all necessary safety precautions at all the flyovers at the Expressway to ensure that such incidents do not recur.
The Minister for Works, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu should give personal attention to this problem and ensure that PLUS discharges its duty to fulfil its contractual promise of ensuring the safety of all North-South Expressway motorists.
(30/10/96)