Burnt

Burnt
Originally uploaded by wanhashim

Guess what is being burnt? This is the original charger come together with brand new Iphone sold at Low Yat Plaza. The voltage written on the charger is so tiny and almost invisible. Thus, I assumed that the voltage should be 240V because it is sold in Malaysia and further I cannot really verify the exact voltage as written on the charger. Once the charger is plugged in the power socket, it burnt causes the hotel room electricity supply to trip.Luckily my precious Iphone is still intact.

Fatal Secondary Road Accident and Hazard of Fixed Roadside Object

No matter how safe and careful you drive, accident can happen due to other driver's mishap. This phenomenon is described as secondary accident. For example, recently the death of a lorry driver after a gantry fell on him following another accident involving a trailer and a car at the 445th kilometre of the North-South Expressway near Rawang.

As described by The Star Newspaper above, a Proton Wira hit the rear of a trailer causing the trailer to lose control and plough into the divider. The crash uprooted the support of a heavy signboard column, located in the highway median, causing the heavy signboard to fall onto an on-coming lorry travelling on the opposite lane of the highway. The lorry driver died in the accident and the lorry dragged the signboard for about 100 metres. The drivers of the trailer and his passenger only suffered minor injuries.

Thus, the incident started with the carelessness of the proton wira driver which causes the trailer to lost control of his trailer. Unfortunately, a heavy signboard gantry located at the incident eventually causes the death of an unfortunate lorry driver that happened to travel in the opposite direction at the same time.

In traffic engineering, the first principle that should be considered when designing high speed highway facilities is to remove any fixed objects from the road side. There should be a minimum distance provided for the fixed object to be placed and the base of the fixed object should be adequately protected from the on-coming traffic. In case that the fixed object is too close to the roadside, adequate protection system such as by providing guardrail (which is actually a roadside hazard if it is not being design properly) to prevent any out-of-control vehicles from hitting the object.

World Class Traffic Jam

World Class Traffic Jam
Originally uploaded by joiseyshowaa

Typical Traffic jam on a street in Dhaka. Due to the high population density, vehicular traffic travels at a crawling speed to give ways for pedestrian. Pedestrians seem to cross the street all the way along the street and there is no specific location along the road that can be considered as pedestrian crossing.

Pasar Tamu Sri Aman

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Originally uploaded by wanhashim

Pasar Tamu Sri Aman is open everyday. The market is busy almost everyday except for certain days off due to festive season. The market is famous for its natural produce. Next time you drop by Sri Aman, don't forget to visit the Pasar Tamu Sri Aman market.

Toward Sustainable Transportation: Pedestrian Walkways

Soon, there will be a number of pedestrian walkways being completed throughout Kuala Lumpur. The initiatives is under the Urban Public Transport (UPT), National Key Results Areas (NKRA) which is a a joint effort between Prasarana and Kuala Lumpur City Hall. Hope that in the future, more pedestrian walkways should be provided in order to encourage walking and thus contributing toward sustainable transportation. The selection of the location for pedestrian walkways must be carried out systematically in order to capture the areas with high pedestrian volumes.

The covered walkway projects are as follows:

From Pasar Seni LRT station to the Central Market.

From Pasar Seni LRT station to KTM Komuter station with an elevated walkway.

From Bandaraya LRT station to the City Hall building in Jalan Raja Laut.

From Hang Tuah LRT station to the Monorail station and the Masjid Al-Bukhary.

From Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) LRT station to The Mall and Hentian Putra.

From Plaza Rakyat LRT station to Pudu Raya bus terminal and the Cahaya Suria and Maybank buildings.

From Medan Tuanku Monorail station to the Maju Junction Mall and the Sultan Ismail LRT station.

Covered at-grade and elevated walkways connecting LRT and Monorail stations to key buildings and areas in the city

For further info, read HERE.

Gotthard Base Tunnel

The new Gotthard Base Tunnel located underneath the Alps in Switzerland is now the world's longest tunnel. Before this Japan's Seikan Tunnel is the longest tunnel in the world. The tunnelling project started in the 40's by engineer Eduard Gruner and recently, Swiss engineers smashed through the last stretch of rock. Overall, it took them almost 60 years to dig through the 35.4-mile (57 - Kilometer) long tunnel.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel will add to the high-speed transportation network covering all angles of Europe. The high-speed rail will carry millions of goods cutting through the Alps thus reducing the environmental damage that heavy trucks inflicted on the Switzerland's Alpine highland.

The Gotthard Base Tunnel will create a high-speed transportation link which is economically important link between the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Italy's Mediterranean port of Genoa.

Thus, Europeans are willing to spend so much money on building a new high-speed transportation link because they know that the link is vital to their continuous growth in economy which will benefit them in the future.

Read further story HERE.

Car Crashing into Trees

Planting trees beside roadway can be aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and is environmental friendly. In Malaysia, planting trees besides the road can help drivers reduce tropical heat especially during midday. Usually, speed limit is low along the road with trees planted besides the road.

However, any fix object located besides roadway can be considered as traffic hazard. Severe accident can occur if the vehicle is out of control and at the same time hitting the trees. In this case, the only solution is to drive according to the stipulated speed limit to avoid vehicles from skidding and involve in serious accident.

Yesterday, six people died when the Honda City they were travelling in crashed and collided into two trees at the Kuala Lumpur-Ipoh trunk road at Jeram, near Kampar. The incident occurs at 2 am where five of the victims, who were trapped in the car, died on the spot. The impact of the crash into the first tree causes the vehicle to collide with another tree. According to police, the vehicle was speeding before it lost control and collided with the trees.

For more news, read HERE.

Emergency Landing

A Qatar Airways Airbus A330 enroute from Manila to Doha made an emergency landing at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) after one of its pilots died of a heart attack mid-air. All 250 passengers on board landed safely, thanks to the Co-Pilot. 

Thus, for aircraft, the plane can still be piloted safely due to the presence of both pilot and co-pilot. In case there is an emergency involving the pilot, as in this case, the co-pilot will take over the control of the aircraft.

Until now, I have been wondering about the case of vehicle accidents. It might be possible that some of the accidents occurs due to the drivers having an emergency such as having a heart attack causing their vehicles to be out of control and ended up with fatal accident. In that case, the blame will usually be put on the driver for driving recklessly. It would be very difficult for the police officer to identify the root cause of such an accident (i.e. the heart attack). Thus, the only possible reason is to put the blame on the poor driver for reckless driving.

Miners finally being Rescued

33 miners were trapped underground since the collapsed of 700,000 tons of rocks around them on the Aug 5. Seventeen days after the rock collapsed, no one knew about their fate whether they were alive.

However, since then the world is stunned by the endurance and unity waiting in anticipation for the rescue efforts. Rescue shaft were prepared since then and only several hours ago that the rescue effort were able to be carried out by pulling each one of them using the specially designed capsule.

It is an historical events in many ways: longest surviving miners trapped underground, longest rescue effort ever attempted, etc.

Read more HERE.

Main Mode of Transport

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Originally uploaded by wanhashim

This is one of the main mode of transport along Btg. Lupar river. The boat is powered by an engine which enable them to travel inland via the river.

Motorcycle Lane

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Originally uploaded by wanhashim

Motorcycle lane at toll plaza on the North-South Expressway. Motorcyclists are exempted from paying toll while using the North-South Expressway and they have to use the exclusive motorcycle lane to enter the expressway.

Another National Headline

11 fatalities due to accident involving 2 express buses, a van and three cars at Km 223, Plus Highway near the Simpang Ampat toll in Negri Sembilan tonight.

Read more HERE.

There seems not much improvement in the safety aspect of express busses.

Logjam

A Morning's Work
Originally uploaded by bubblegumgirlz

Heavy rain for several days causes massive landslide along the Baleh River located in the interior of Sarawak. The mudslide causes logs and debris to filled up the Rajang River located downstream and causes severe vessel congestion because non of the ship could travel through the river due to the logjam.

Read further story HERE.

Toll Booths

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Originally uploaded by wanhashim

Another way of increasing the capacity of toll facilities is by providing more toll booths within one lane of traffic direction as shown in the picture. With the limited space available, the number of vehicles being processed at any one time will be higher. However, there seems to be an increased in vehicle conflicts (which can lead to accident) while exiting the multiple toll booths.

Penang Bridge

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Originally uploaded by wanhashim

Penang bridge with the recently open additional traffic lane on both sides of the bridge. Just wondering why there is no provision for motorcycle lane on the bridge.