Chloettw @ChloettwVAL - Twitter Profile

about 1 month ago

Everyone is angry at this. Not just the Malays. The Chinese, the Indians, the indigenous tribes and myself included as an East Malaysian. And we should be. A family of four from Terengganu, a father, a mother, a 73-year-old grandmother and a 10-year-old girl, were on their way somewhere on Monday afternoon near Simpang Renggam, Johor. It looked like a regular day but they never made it home. Two brothers of Chinese origins, 19 and 22 years old, were racing on that same road in a Mercedes Benz A250 and a BMW 530e. When the BMW lost control, it crossed into the opposite lane and hit four other vehicles. According to news reports, the 22-year-old driver also died when his car entered a ravine. Five people died in total. No amount of money can bring back those five lives. I’ve seen people make this a racial issue online. I understand the anger. But to me this is a road safety failure. And somewhere, it’s also a parenting failure. Because two young men shouldn’t be racing luxury cars on a public road. Something along the way went very wrong. So wrong… 😔 This is a classic case of cause and effect. Every day we see drivers like this on our roads. Speeding, weaving, treating the highway like a circuit. Many don’t see the importance of road safety until it happens to them or to someone they love. The scary part is no matter how careful we are, some people are careless. We used to have real road safety campaigns in this country. In the 80s and 90s, it was everywhere, on TV, on radio, in schools. It shaped how a generation thought about driving. I feel the culture is gone. And we’re paying for it with lives. I won’t be surprised if something like this happens again in a few months. Because nothing has really changed. I don’t know when Malaysia will become a country that is able to reduce its road accident rate. To the families who are affected, words are not enough. May they rest in peace. Deepest condolences. 😔