THE STAR
PETALING JAYA: Four taxi drivers who were caught on camera driving on the emergency lane have been slammed by Malaysians for their carelessness.
An ambulance dashcam captured four taxi drivers blocking the way of an ambulance that was responding to a multiple-vehicle accident on the Elite highway on Monday afternoon.
In the video, the ambulance driver could be heard complaining to his colleague about the taxis blocking the emergency lane.
"Semua taxi (It is all taxis)," said the driver.
"Give way, give way, we are responding to an accident, we are responding to an accident," announced the driver on the ambulance loudspeaker.
Despite the blare of the siren and horn, the still continued to drive on the emergency lane, delaying the ambulance from reaching the scene of the accident.
The taxi drivers all attempted to move out of the emergency lane, but could not do so fast enough due to the standstill traffic on the highway.
The video was uploaded by a Hospital Putrajaya medic Muhd Azul on his Facebook page with the caption: "Ada jugak yang xfaham bahasa lagi" (There are some who do not understand Bahasa)
He was responding to an accident involving two lorries and two cars that created a 7km crawl on the Elite Highway at km28.6 from Putrajaya to KLIA.
The state of the accident victims are not known.
The video has garnered close to 12,000 shares on Facebook, close to 8,000 reactions and over a thousand comments.
Netizens urged the authorities to take action on the taxi drivers, with some sharing the identity of the drivers based on the taxi's number plate.
Last month, the Road Transport Department (JPJ) announced that they will bring road users who use the emergency lane to court immediately.
RTD director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad said for those who are adamant in using the emergency lane will be brought to court under Rule 9 and 53 of Road Traffic Rules 1959 that carries a fine of not more than RM2,000 or jail not less then a year.
