That bad habit is to slow down and start staring at incidents or accidents that have occurred near you while driving. Now it might be natural for everyone to slow down as the instinctive reaction is to make sure you don’t knock into anyone else and it is a safety barrier. But most drivers slow down and then start staring at the accident like what might have happened in the Pioneer Road accident, trying to figure out what went on and, of course, a major like of many Singaporeans – doing their best to spot the car plate or license numbers of the accident vehicles.

“What for?” you may ask. So that they can scoot off to the nearest Singapore Pools 4D outlet during lunch and buy the numbers in the hopes that they have the next ‘lucky’ 4D numbers to hit the top prize. It might not have been the same intention by the lorry drivers involved in this Pioneer Road accident, but allowing yourself to be distracted by accidents other than to slow down and drive safely is causing major road hazards.

Unfortunately there might not be an easy solution to this. It is after all, human nature, and most people are curious as to what happens around them, especially in morbid situations such as the Pioneer Road accident. Even more unfortunate is that curiosity may kill the cat, or us, in this case.

Unfortunately, despite residents concern and some who have voiced it to the mainstream media, the authorities do not seem to take them to heart and continue to iterate the same reasons given – that the gantry will not be switched on unless traffic along the route fell between 20 – 30 km/hr. Given the number of people who have to use it anyway since ERP gantries were set up along the BKE, most expect the gantry to be used soon. Residents around this area now have to pay just to get out of their house to go to work in the morning.

There are some alternate routes to explore, but you would need to get up earlier to make up for the time required to make these extra turns. One way would be to enter Hillview and exit at the old firestation junction further up after the gantry, or to head straight for the junction at Beauty World and the PIE, also via Hillview. However, you can be sure that additional ERP gantries will be erected at these points in the near future as we endure more impractical attempts to curb growing traffic.