Tragedi Tangkak dedah konflik reka bentuk lebuh raya, amalan penguatkuasaan

 Pakar keselamatan jalan raya berkata insiden maut di Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan isyarat prosedur belum disesuaikan dengan risiko trafik moden.

Kesilapan kecil di lebuh raya menjadi ‘fatal’ apabila manusia berada tetap di bahu jalan, kata pakar keselamatan jalan raya. (Gambar Bernama)

PETALING JAYA:

 Insiden kemalangan maut di KM170.1 Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan yang mengorbankan seorang penunggang motosikal dan mencederakan anggota polis mencetuskan persoalan lebih besar mengenai keselamatan operasi di lorong kecemasan lebuh raya berkelajuan tinggi.

Pengasas dan penasihat Persatuan Pakar Keselamatan Jalan Raya Serta Sukan Permotoran Jamil Manan Supri berkata, tragedi itu tidak wajar dilihat semata-mata sebagai kemalangan atau kesilapan operasi individu, sebaliknya mencerminkan konflik struktur antara prinsip reka bentuk lebuh raya dan amalan penguatkuasaan semasa.

“Lebuh raya akses terkawal direka sebagai persekitaran ‘forgiving’ untuk meminimumkan kesan kesilapan manusia.

“Lorong kecemasan berfungsi sebagai ruang pemulihan keselamatan, bukan ruang kerja operasi rutin,” katanya.

Jamil Manan Supri.

Dalam kejadian itu, seorang penunggang motosikal berusia 38 tahun dilaporkan melanggar seorang anggota polis ketika pemeriksaan dijalankan di lorong kecemasan.

Mangsa disahkan meninggal dunia ketika menerima rawatan di Hospital Jasin, manakala anggota polis berkenaan mengalami kecederaan sebelum dipindahkan ke Hospital Melaka.

Menurut Jamil, apabila lorong kecemasan digunakan untuk pemeriksaan rutin, ia mengubah fungsi asalnya daripada ‘zon keselamatan steril’ kepada ruang operasi aktif dalam persekitaran trafik berkelajuan tinggi.

“Di lebuh raya 110 km/j, jangkaan pemandu terhadap objek atau individu yang berhenti di bahu jalan adalah sangat rendah. Apabila anggota berada di situ, mereka sebenarnya berada dalam persekitaran tenaga tinggi tanpa perlindungan fizikal mencukupi,” katanya.

Beliau berkata, keadaan di Malaysia lebih kompleks kerana lorong kecemasan sering digunakan penunggang motosikal untuk memintas kesesakan, sekali gus mewujudkan zon konflik langsung antara trafik bergerak laju dan aktiviti statik.

“Ini bukan sekadar insiden terpencil. Ia adalah risiko struktur apabila amalan penguatkuasaan bertembung dengan realiti trafik lebuh raya moden,” katanya.

Sehubungan itu, beliau mencadangkan agar semua pemeriksaan rutin dipindahkan ke zon terkawal seperti plaza tol, kawasan Rehat dan Rawat (R&R) atau hentian khas yang direka untuk tujuan tersebut.

Bagi hentian yang tidak dapat dielakkan, seperti respons kecemasan atau ancaman keselamatan segera, beliau mengesyorkan penggunaan kenderaan penampan (shadow vehicle) di bahagian hulu lokasi dengan lampu amaran intensiti tinggi serta pengurusan trafik sementara.

“Perlindungan kenderaan penampan perlu dijadikan prosedur mandatori, bukan pilihan. Ini selaras dengan pendekatan ‘safe system’ yang mengandaikan kesilapan manusia pasti berlaku dan pendedahan kepada trafik berkelajuan tinggi mesti diminimumkan,” katanya.

Jamil berkata, tragedi Tangkak wajar dilihat sebagai peluang pembelajaran di peringkat sistem.

“Lebuh raya direka untuk meminimumkan kesan kesilapan pemandu. Tetapi apabila manusia dijadikan sasaran tetap di bahu jalan, kesilapan kecil boleh menjadi ‘fatal’. Prosedur perlu diselaraskan dengan tahap risiko trafik semasa,” katanya. - FMT

Border shooting sparks probe for gang link

 Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail says the ministry is trying to establish whether the nine people who were arrested had been operating as a group.

Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and Bukit Kayu Hitam border control commander Nasaruddin Nasir (background) with members of the Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency today. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA:

 The home ministry is investigating the possibility of organised crime being involved in the recent shooting of a vehicle driven by a border control commander.

Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the ministry is trying to establish whether nine people who were arrested following the shooting were operating as a group.

Evidence is still being gathered, and multiple hypotheses being considered, including the possibility of their involvement in smuggling and human trafficking, Bernama quoted him as saying.

A Thai woman was among the nine people who were arrested in Bukit Kayu Hitam and Padang Besar hours after the attack on the vehicle at 5.40am on Wednesday about 1km from the border.

The vehicle was driven by Nasaruddin Nasir, the Bukit Kayu Hitam commander of the Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency. He was on his way to perform subuh prayers when two men on a motorcycle, dressed in black and wearing full-face helmets, approached his car. One of them fired two shots, hitting the car’s rear right door and front passenger door.

Nasaruddin, who was driving alone, was unharmed. He pursued the gunmen for about 1km after which they fled into a nearby industrial area. - FMT

Latest developments in US, Israel strikes on Iran

 US and Israeli strikes on Iran triggered retaliatory attacks across the Middle East and reactions from world leaders and Iran-backed groups.

Smoke rises in central Tehran after Israel’s “preemptive strike” on Tehran. (EPA Images pic)

PARIS:

 The United States and Israel launched a wave of strikes against targets in Iran on Saturday, triggering explosions in the capital Tehran and an escalation across the region.

Here are the latest developments as the military action announced by US President Donald Trump and the Israeli government sparked a flurry of retaliatory salvos from Iran that closed airspaces around the Middle East.

Strikes across Iran

The joint operation began with smoke seen rising over Tehran after strikes that Israel said were pre-emptive.

Shortly after, Trump took to his Truth Social platform, posting a surprise video statement announcing US combat operations in Iran, with the goal of “eliminating imminent threats”.

The Israeli military said it targeted multiple sites where senior Iranian officials had gathered in Tehran.

The military said it was “now assessing the results of the attack”.

It also said it was targeting missile launchers in western Iran.

The strikes followed months of joint planning between the allies, it added.

Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported the strikes targeted Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian.

In the deadliest reported attack, at least 51 students were killed in a strike on a girls’ school in southern Iran, state media said, after a provincial official said the deaths were due to Israeli strikes.

An image grab from Iranian state television showing the site of deadly US and Israeli strikes that hit a girls’ elementary school in Minab, in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan. (AFP pic)

In southern Iraq, a bombing that targeted a military base housing a pro-Iran group killed at least two people, authorities said.

Missile, drone wave

In response, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, after launching a first wave of missile and drone attacks at Israel.

“The first wave of widespread missile and drone attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the occupied territories has begun,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement, referring to Israel.

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said it was treating a man with blast injuries in the north of the country, after missiles were launched towards Israel from Iran.

The Israeli military said it deployed search and rescue teams to multiple locations across the country following reports of fallen projectiles.

The country’s foreign ministry said it would “respond decisively” to the strikes, insisting Tehran had done “everything necessary to prevent war” from breaking out.

“Just as we were ready for negotiations, we are now more prepared than ever to defend the Iranian nation,” it said.

Gulf explosions

Explosions were reported across the Gulf region.

The United Arab Emirates said it intercepted a second wave of Iranian strikes, after a first wave killed one civilian in the capital Abu Dhabi.

Witnesses in Dubai said they heard an explosion and saw missiles streak across the sky.

AFP correspondents in the Saudi capital Riyadh heard loud explosions, as well as in Bahraini capital Manama and across Qatari capital Doha.

Qatar’s defence ministry said it had intercepted several missile attacks targeting the Gulf state, while Kuwait also engaged incoming strikes.

Saudi Arabia condemned Iranian attacks targeting its neighbours in a statement released by its official press agency, but made no mention of Iran targeting the kingdom.

Elsewhere, Jordan said it shot down two ballistic missiles and vowed to defend its interests “with all its might”.

Explosions were also heard near the US consulate in Iraq’s Erbil, according to AFP journalists.

Allied support, warnings

French President Emmanuel Macron called for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting over the escalation.

Oman’s foreign minister, who has been mediating talks between Tehran and Washington, said he was “dismayed” by the outbreak of conflict.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Canberra supports the US action against Iran, while the UK expressed fear that the military strikes could blow up into “a wider regional conflict”.

Ukraine said the Iranian government’s “violence against its own people and other countries” had triggered the attacks.

The European Union said developments in Iran were “perilous”, and urged the protection of civilians.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said his country refused to be dragged into war.

Russia slammed the strikes as a “dangerous adventure” that could spark “catastrophe” in the region.

Pakistan condemned the “unwarranted attacks against Iran” and called for an “immediate halt” to escalation.

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which fought a deadly war with Israel for two years, condemned the strikes on its backer Iran.

Another Iranian ally, Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, is yet to comment.

Airspace closures, flights nixed

Qatar’s civil aviation authority said the Gulf state’s airspace had been temporarily closed and Qatar Airways said it had suspended all flights from Doha.

Iraq closed its airspace while Syria closed part of its airspace in the south along the border with Israel for 12 hours.

Russia cancelled commercial flights to both Iran and Israel “until further notice”.

Air France cancelled its Tel Aviv and Beirut flights, while Lufthansa announced it had cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv, Beirut, Amman, Erbil and Tehran until March 7.

Turkish Airlines suspended flights to 10 Middle East nations, while Air India suspended all flights to the region.

Some airlines from Britain, Pakistan, Switzerland and Norway also paused or cancelled flights. - FMT