Road accidents of any kind, fatal or not, always bring change or changes to one’s life, the environment, even to society, especially if it involves any death. Not everything remains status quo.
When I received an early phone call from my cousin brother Paul, 37, of Miri on Sarawak Day, I answered it nervously. As he never called before – we just communicated by WhatsApp – I knew he would be telling me about something out of the ordinary. My first thought it would be about his father, 84, the only sibling of my late mom left.
Paul, sounding composed, told me his elder brother Eddie, 54, was involved in a car crash in Niah and succumbed to his injuries. I was lost for words as this was really shocking and unexpected. That brought a lot of changes to my family’s plans for the Sarawak Day and the few subsequent days. Lots of calculator works were involved to.
To the immediate bereaved family, it was the first death at their Piasau Phase II home, where I used to stay while having a weekend visit to Miri during my days in the Brunei sultanate. My late cousin brother Eddie, fondly known as Dom, was my constant companion during those visits. I can easily imagine the changes such loss brings to them, especially to my frail uncle and aunty who are both regular patients at the Miri Hospital and other health care centres.
Being a bread winner for the family besides Paul, Dom’s demise certainly was a great loss. They are not wealth off; my uncle Gawing who retired from Sarawak Shell Berhad at 55 in 1988 has long exhausted his resources, leaving now only Paul as their main bread winner with some support from Dom’s two working sons. A lot of adjustments on spending and expenses have to be made.
A veteran of one fatal accident that took the lives of my first born daughter,5, and my niece,9, I have experienced such predicaments myself. Due to my cerebral concussion that lasted about five weeks, leaving me to be under treatment at both the Lau King Howe Hospital in Sibu and the Sarawak General Hospital for a total of seven weeks, I was not involved in a lot of vital things such as the funerals of the two girls, the police reports and others. Insurance claims and other related matters were done after I totally recovered. My wife then, who was on the passenger seat next to me, was also hurt in the accident but was warded in Sibu’s Lau King Howe Hospital for one only and discharged as she suffered only minor injuries and furthermore she had to be at our daughter’s funeral and helped to run related matters.
Members of my family were also very much involved especially in the funerals that were conducted in two venues, namely my longhouse in Kedap, Saratok for my daughter Garcia Ann Kejuang and my brother-in-law’s longhouse in Bawang Assan, Sibu for my niece Daphne.
We have to adjust to the sudden change, including engaging legal counsels to handle legal matters, especially those pertaining to court hearing and claims. Thanks God, Garcia’s mom and I were the victims and were served with subpoena to be prosecution witnesses.
In 1997, seven years after the accident, I had to come to Sibu from Kuala Belait, Brunei Darussalam for a court hearing as witness. However, the other party pleaded guilty to reckless driving and causing death under Section 41 ( c ) of the Road Transport Act 1987. The culprit was sentenced to two weeks’ jail and fined RM4000 in lieu of three months’ imprisonment. How cheap two lives could be. I know the present penalty under Section 41 of the same Act has been increased to a maximum of 10 years’ jail and a maximum fine of RM20,000 but the Magistrate Court rarely imposes a maxiumum penalty. In this year’s March parliamentary session, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the ministry had no plan to amend the penalty under Section 41 of the Road Transport Act 1987, saying the penalty was sufficient.
My other serious road misdemeanour, thanks and no thanks to Jack Daniels, was in 2001 at Bandar Seri Begawan, going against the traffic flow at 2am. Realising half-way I made a sudden turn going into the Lapau and hit the gate – making me the first person to do so since the beginning of time. Such stupid act cost me my fanciful and sporty B$8.5k Daewoo Racer II and two-night cosy stay at RIPAS (Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha) Hospital that generously charged me B$1,504. Luckily I was covered by insurance and Brunei Press had to settle the bill. I had to deposit B$2,000 as bond with the police and by the time I left in 2002, the case was still pending and so was the B$2k bond. So much cash and red tapes were involved. I could vividly recall that prior to our excitements over JD and Chivas at the Terrace Hotel (also known as Ang’s Hotel after its owner Mrs Ang) that I withdrew five pieces of BND 100 notes from the nearby Stanchart ATM and did not spend anything at all that evening. All the JDs and Chivas were bought earlier but upon checking out from RIPAS three days later there were only four pieces of BND100 notes in my wallet. Our Brunei Press GM Reggie See, a Singaporean, who helped to check me in – I was comatose – after the accident said that was exactly declared as my wallet cash content. So one hundred BND was missing and sadly our fingers were pointing to the cop who checked on me at Lapau in my wrecked Daewoo Racer II. A friend who was at the scene identified the culprit when I went to post the BND2k bail to the BSB Police Stattion after my discharge from RIPAS. He looked sheepish and was obviously trying to avoid me but I could not and had no intention to do anything to pursue the matter (lost BND100).
My life was never the same. I had to report to the police station once monthly and later once in two months until I left Brunei for good in early 2002 when my dad was critically ill in Saratok. Instead of driving the flashy two-year-old Daewoo, I had to settle for an old two-door Nissan Pulsar Coupe and had to come back to Brunei many times to get the three-month pass renewed. What if the accident never happened, I asked myself many times. It could have been avoided if not for the super ego of a drunken stupid self. A lot of adjustments had to be made to cope up and comply with various post crash needs.
Lately, on Gawai eve, after bumping into the back of a new Axia, some cash was involved in settling the case out of court. As the culprit, I had to pay for the repair of the Axia which was quite substantial not to mention the cost of my own repair. Apart from the hassle of receiving demanding calls, I had to use public transport at times while waiting for my own car to be fully repaired. Various quarters, especially my own family members, were sympathetic with me for they knew when the accident happened on 31 May, I was forced to wake up around 4.30am to pick my niece from the Charles Brooke Memorial Hospital after 10th Mile and then sent her to Kuching Sentral to catch a bus to Sibu. Thereafter I was in the office. The ‘bumping’ occurred around 11.30pm on my way back from work. By then I was really exhausted and not 100 per cent focused. Nevertheless after the incident, I realised that anything is possible on the road. Part of it could be your own doing too. Just remember that you are always vulnerable on the roads, so take extreme care at all times to avoid mishap.
