Ambulance misuse?

I was simply caught unawares this morning. It took me TWO hours to reach the office on a journey that would normally take me about an hour. No price for guessing correctly where I was caught.

Of course, it had to be the Penang Bridge. That darn Penang Bridge. Took about 25 minutes to inch my way to the toll booths and another 10 minutes to clear the bottleneck after the booths. About six to eight lanes of traffic converging into a two-lane bridge that's already narrowed as a result of the on-going bridge expansion project. After that, a slow steady drive until the midspan.

You know what? My belief is that even after the expansion project is finished, there will still be a queue on the bridge and at the toll booths during peak hours.

First reason: the bottleneck cannot be eliminated. It'll still be there. Traffic from seven, eight, nine payment lanes will still be squeezed into three lanes. Second reason: the additional toll booths that were built some two or three years ago are just deceptions to trick bridge users into believing that if there are more payment booths, traffic flow will be faster. Noooo.....users are still squeezed into the bottleneck. Where's the logic?

While inching forward in my car this morning, an ambulance came from behind, ululating away. This is not the first time. In fact, whenever I am caught in a bridge jam in the mornings, I always anticipate to be overtaken by a wailing ambulance between 8.45am and 9am. If there is a constant, this is it. The ambulance seldom fails to make a noisy appearance.

And it sets me thinking whether there is actually any critically ill patient in the vehicle? I mean, how coincidental is it that when I'm caught in a morning jam, the ambulance is ferrying a crtitically ill patient from the mainland to the island between 8.45am and 9am? Or is it just the ambulance driver misusing his privileges to cross the bridge in express record time at the expense of other bridge users?

Of course, we will never know. We have always given the ambulances the benefit of our doubts but how can we ensure that there is no abuse? Are ambulance drivers beyond any question? There should be some transparency and hospital authorities should check whether they have any ambulance staff, living on the mainland, intentionally deceiving the public every morning.