This post is titled Check this out yo! by author SoulJah. Wrote this in to Borneo Bulletin on 8th December, 2004.

Deathtrap at the Mentiri roundabout
I'm writing to voice out my concern over the relatively dangerous conditions at the Mentiri round about which was completed last year.

While this round about has greatly facilitated easier travel to Bandar or Gadong from Mentiri and the surrounding areas, the roundabout has seen some major accidents, some of them fatal, for the past few months. Just last year, a day before the Hari Raya celebrations, an elderly man and his family met with a fatal accident.

The roundabout is set up in a precarious arrangement. The road approaching the roundabout is 30 degrees incline down the hill at the end of which is the roundabout.

To the left as we approach the roundabout, there is a guard railing made of stainless steel that you see everyday on the side of the road. These are proven effective in preventing cars from being thrown to the sides into ditches or drains. But the dangerous aspect of this is that at the end of this guardrail is a pathway with handrails for pedestrians.

Not that there's anything wrong with having handrails for pedestrians, it's just that if a car loses control going down hill towards the roundabout, the majority of cars will swerve hard to the left to avoid the roundabout and hit the guardrail. But the consequence of this would be that right in front of them is the handrail, which would act like a knife cutting into a car.

One car too many has met their demise here, while some of their occupants were plain lucky to even get out alive. I suggest the relevant authorities re-plan the arrangement of the 'safety' item near the roundabout, like removing the hand rails altogether seeing that the pathway on that side is rarely used, or installing a more effective device, like using water-filled plastic barrels or barriers commonly used on American highways. These will minimise the impact force of a collision as the water will absorb most of the force and disperse it as harmlessly as water will ever be.

We really need the relevant authorities to look into this. How many more lives need to be lost before we can do something to prevent it?

- Worried Road User

Source : http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/wed/dec8p1.htm

Headlining letter on opinions pages even!

Mirror

Posted by SoulJah at 9:57:00 PM

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