Life's Happenings: Horrible Crash at Jln Tun Razak

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Horrible Crash at Jln Tun Razak

* Latest update - On Friday, Star newspaper published about this accident. It seems that 3 persons out of 4 in the car died due to the impact. Remaining guy was hospitalised with serious leg injuries. It was a Mercedes S350L and the car belonged to the driver's company - which rents out limousines. The newspaper reported wrongly on the time of the accident as it happened during the wee hours of Thursday morning.
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I left home at about 7.45am this morning and it would be just nice timing with me arriving at the office building around 8.20-8.25am. But it was not to be today.

As I'm a frequent user of the Smart Tunnel, the long queue for the Jalan Tun Razak exit will usually start at the emergency exit no. 7 area (inside the tunnel) but today, the jam started at emergency exit no. 12. That was bad.

Not only my lane but the lane heading towards to Jalan Bukit Bintang was equally bad. At times, vehicles on both lanes stopped literally. This was really unusual. Not long after that, I saw a tow-truck squeezing its way through the traffic at the left side (emergency lane) of the tunnel. Awwwwwwww, no wonder, accident right ahead. By the time I exit the tunnel, I didn't notice any cars or car parts on the road (maybe I was cock-eyed) but the left lane turning to Jln Bukit Bintang was still bad with cars lining up to exit.

I was inside the tunnel for a good 30 minutes. Normally, it would take me 30 minutes to reach office. Now, the Smart Tunnel's operator did mention that if they want to divert certain flood water into the tunnel, they could do it within 10 minutes. 10 minutes - the time required to clear the tunnel from any traffic.

Ok, I was stucked inside the tunnel for 30 minutes and reason was because the traffic at the end of the tunnel was not moving. What if they intend to flood the tunnel and they can't clear the traffic on time as was this morning's situation. My colleague joked about it stating that I didn't read their small terms and conditions. That scenario would have worked if my car was the only car and no traffic jam at the end of the tunnel. True enough.

After going through a snail pace, I got stucked under another short tunnel right below the Jalan Tun Razak/Jalan Bukit Bintang junction (in front of RHB Bank). It was moving centimetre by centimetre. Slowly manouvering my way to the left later on to squeeze into the road heading to Jln Tun Razak/Jalan Ampang junction. The moment I arrived at the Tabung Haji building, traffic was clear all the way. What happened behind me????

Soon, I received an email stating that a horrifying accident happened right in front of the newly occupied Dua Residency condo (2 white buildings in the centre of the picture). A high-end Mercedes actually smacked right into a tree before flinging itself onto Dua Residency's security post at the entrance.

A colleague who passed by the building at 6.15am had already noticed the place of accident but the police only came to remove the car at around 8am.

Some colleagues only managed to come into office after 9am due to that. The Smart Tunnel was also closed to traffic after I have entered it as a colleague of mine was turned away at a later time.