Whose Fault Is It?

I heard a local news of a fatal accident recently involving a pair of motorcyclist and a heavily laden lorry where the motorcyclist died on the spot while his pillion rider was seriously injured. This happened on a trunk road close to a major junction. I know this road and I pass through it very often. It is a very busy road, wide, straight but uneven, i.e you will feel your car or whatever vehicle you are driving rattling or bumping (is there such a word?) up and down as you go along. Yet, most vehicles plying this road will be speeding along as it is straight and wide.

I have often heard of and read of many fatal accidents all over the country but this piece of news attracted my attention more than the others. The news went on to say that the motorcyclist, riding on the side of the road, and in trying to avoid a pothole, swerved a little to the inner side of the road, causing a car that was behind to swerve too to avoid colliding with the motorcyclist and in that instant the motorcyclist lost control of his motorcycle (perhaps due to an aftershock when the car just missed him). The next vehicle that came by was the heavy laden lorry which was traveling immediately behind the first car and I assume a little too close to it, could not avoid the motorcyclist in time and crashed into it. The pillion rider was thrown some distance away by the impact while the motorcyclist was caught underneath the lorry. No other details were given of the accident and I guess if there were more, the details would be gory or gruesome.
Now, in the above scenario, whose fault was it? I had the opportunity to talk about this accident with some friends. Most said that it was the fault of the motorcyclist. (It is common perception of the general public that whenever a road accident involving a motorcyclist happens it is the motorcyclist that is likely at fault!!) Some would say that the lorry driver was at fault. The first car was not at fault as he had no alternative but to sway away from hitting the motorcyclist. However, if you look at the whole scenario, if the pothole had not been there the accident would not have happened? So, was the pothole at fault?

My blame goes to the authorities’ in-charge of the road, the town council or municipality or public works department in charge of roads or whoever is directly responsible for maintaining the road. The catch word here is ‘maintaining’. The road has not been properly maintained. That pothole was not the only pothole in the whole stretch. There were others. The quality of the road is also questionable. It has never been smooth. It was not properly built in the first place. But why was it not properly built? That question attracts other questions that would invariably end with improper control system and monitoring by those responsible. It is not only this road that is questionable but many other public facilities and infrastructure works that yearns for answers to obvious questions as above. Although I am now generalizing but look back into the last couple of years; look at how many bridges and highways that were closed either fully or partially because of poor workmanship that had caused cracks, fatigues and other failures; how many public buildings had walls and ceilings collapsing; public amenities and facilities not meeting specifications, and so on and so on…… Whenever such ‘things’ occur one will usually notice fingers start pointing at others. This authority blames that authority and others and vice versa. The poor contractor, who constructed or built the facilities are usually seen as at fault. But is that true? I have my doubts. The contractors inevitably become the scapegoats and meanwhile some others goes away laughing and Scots free.

Much as we want modern facilities, the maintenance of such facilities demands equal attention. Development budgets should have equal allocation for maintenance. Then again, the development itself should be properly monitored and executed, that every dollar spent was not spent ‘in vain’ but was worth its value. A thorough review of the system is required to ensure seamless procedures, that funds are properly administered, that development are properly monitored, that maintenance are properly executed. There are still a lot more to be done, and a lot of changes to take place before we can call ourselves world class and I doubt, I may sound very pessimistic, that we will be anywhere near world class in my lifetime……..

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya