Drivers the Vehicles and the Roads DVR

I am fully aware that the government is stepping forward in implementation of new working arrangements, building more Flyovers, new highway roads and effective communication systems and boosting up in every corner of the country’s developments which are as part of the reforms. On the other hand there are uneducated citizens who have been difficult to handle due to their negative behaviour and badly trained with negative attitude as such. Some Officials may be reluctant to accept these changes. However we all must stay on track with positive behaviour, positive attitude and a good collaboration towards the unity so that we will never be wrongly diverted. The article I wish to write is that it is something we need to share and it is good to share our knowledge and experience to improve our learning plans. I always said in my articles that we all are learning day to day. This is part of our learning process. With regards to road accidents I would strongly and highly point out that all accidents are due to and base on DVR ( Drivers, Vehicles, Road Condition ). I have been reading news about accidents on our Myanmar new motorway ( highway ) that the government recently constructed with a good will. New roads are still under projects. We have travelling agencies and touring groups in the country and they all are relying on these motorways. Nowadays due to high travelling costs for air tickets our citizens only rely on road transports. The highway roads have become dangerous hazards on which to drive with high speed due to lack of planning and maintenance works. Most of the highway roads are constructed with concretes. Our country has rain at all the times and monsoon climate in nature. It would be easily destroyed the highway roads if we are not careful in the projects and the plans when laying the basement of the roads in line with a high standard of quality road construction. This could be one of the reasons that accidents are occurred due to the road conditions. I would imagine the vehicles we have in the country are not like the vehicle inspections done yearly in any other countries. A new vehicle in the country is not last long as our roads are not being built like an international standard of road works. Suspensions are easily damaged due to road conditions. Vehicles with over mileage i.e over 100000 mileages in old cars are still running on Myanmar roads without maintenance. People are still using tyres with easily to skip because the tyres have run out of 1.6 millimeter tread. Some tyres may have cuts and damages. There wasn’t any regulation and enforcement on road traffic acts. Therefore the drivers are driving as they wish. Another factor I could find out is that we all learn to drive without a proper training like Western and Europe, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia etc. We have no international recognized theory test arrangement and no on road driving tests, to be able to have road sense and practice on roads. We people have driver license in alternative ways. We have experienced drivers but technically they will not know if they are not being taught highway codes for alertness and safety factors of the drivers and the safety of passengers. For example, skidding happens because of the driver, the vehicles and the road conditions. Skids do not happen its self. The driver is driving with high speed and striking the brakes forcefully and the weight of the car is thrown forward on to front wheels and the vehicle handling is difficult for the driver as the back of the wheels started skidding and the driver cannot control the steering wheel due to the speed that he is doing. If the car does not have ABS ( Antilock Braking System ) the steering will be locked and extremely difficult to handle the vehicle. ABS helps the driver to steer to desire position but it does not have the car to stop from the skids. How to correct the skid is depending upon which side of the back wheels turning. If the skid is to the left, we need to steer slightly to the left so that the vehicle will straight back again. Care must be taken that over-steering to the left could cause another skid to another direction again. If this happens, steer into the direction that the vehicle kids again. Our people don’t normally read the car manual handbook when they buy a new car. Some of the cars have not Handbook included when the car is purchased. My advice to the citizens of Myanmar is that we all need to set up the system for the driver trainings including motorway driving so that we can understand to tackle in driving if the difficult situation arises. This is why I have pointed out that the drivers and their knowledge are important to avoid accidents on highway roads. The last thing that I would like to highlight is Myanmar roads. I appreciate that the government is trying the best of their ability in road-works and maintenance for Myanmar roads. There are comments about Myanmar roads and highway roads. The international visitors who came back to their country from Myanmar, are making their positive comments about Myanmar roads. New roads have been constructed and the speed limits are variable. However Myanmar highway roads suggested the speed of 100 miles per hour like Malaysia. If we compare with type of highway roads with Malaysia and Myanmar highway roads, the road condition cannot be the same. Although it is suggested 100 miles per hour speed limit our people not realizing that this is a maximum speed limit. By law, the driver cannot break this speed limit. The speed limit is only the maximum speed that we can drive but we cannot drive that speed limit when the road condition has developing hazards, badly laid out, a lot of bending and shapes, and any other road activities. We must reduce our speed limit and we cannot target this speed limit. There are less sign posting for hazard warning on Myanmar highway roads. No digital speed limit controls in the night times. No enforcement traffic cameras for those drivers who breaks the speed limit. No clear signs for warning of the drivers on highway roads if there is traffic joining or emerging the motorway from town exit roads. There are a lot of things to be improved for highway roads in Myanmar. Therefore the road conditions are needed to review and we all must protect highway roads not to damage because the citizens of Myanmar are only relying on these highway roads for their destinations. We all must drive safely. We all must learn all safety factors and alertness on road driving. My valuable suggestion to all drivers are “look well ahead, move your eyes for scanning ahead of the road you are going, be pace and be seen”. You must do forward planning and find out all developing hazards. You must slow down in a good time rather than last minute braking. You must drive according to the road conditions. You must let the other road users know by signaling for your intention. i.e Turning left or right, slowing down or changing direction. In Myanmar, the drivers do not care about giving signal in a good time. Some drivers don’t give one. Some drivers give the signal but they do only as they turn(signal timing is late). These are lack of knowledge of highway codes. I urge the Ministry of Road Transport Administration to review our Highway Codes, Learning to Drive Syllabus and Road Traffic Acts for public safety and to reach the International High Standard of Driving on Roads. This is one of the important reforms for democratic country transformation. I believe, this is acceptable suggestion.