The June school holidays are round the corner and it’s time again for the usual “how to” article on driving safely on the Malaysian highway.

Since the 848km North-South Expressway (NSE) opened 14 years ago, Singaporeans have had a fast and fuss-free way of driving in Malaysia. Unfortunately, it is also where more than 60 Singaporeans have lost their lives.

In a recent special report carried by The Sunday Times, driving experts interviewed concluded that the highway itself was not at fault, and it is actually very well-built, safe and designed for high-speed use.

It looks like Singaporean drivers have their limited driving skills to blame, so say the experts. One of them said that some drivers may be out of their league on the NSE where the legal speed limit is 110kmh, although many motorists exceed that. Combine high speed with poor distance judgement, poor road sense and a lack of spatial awareness, and you get disaster.

The experts also say that Singaporeans are not in the habit of checking their mirrors, are prone to road-hogging, do not keep a safe distance and worse, are poor at gauging how fast a car coming up from behind is moving.

Rest and rest

Enough has been said about this: get a good night’s sleep before setting off, stop to rest every one to two hours or when you feel tired or sleepy. Share driving duties with a co-driver if you have one. I personally find this works: assign the front passenger to keep talking to you to keep you awake.

There are rest and service areas located every 80 to 100 kilometres, with facilities like food stalls, petrol stations, toilets and telephones, on both sides of the expressway. You can find smaller rest areas with basic facilities like toilets and public telephones – enough for a short break.

Keep your eyes on the road and avoid distractions like changing CDs, reading maps and talking on the phone. Straight roads are not any safer than winding or steep ones as monotony may kick in and you lose concentration, or worse, doze off.

Certain stretches of roads that are prone to crosswinds will have large orange windsocks to give you an indication of the wind direction and strength. Strong crosswinds could be hazardous as the car might start to swerve. Vehicles with large side surfaces like MPVs and SUVs are most susceptible.

This is not the place to try force the car behind to give way like what some car bullies do in Singapore. To overtake, turn on your right indicator, check the rear-view mirror to ensure no vehicle is overtaking you, and check your blindspot before accelerating into the overtaking lane. Turn on the indicator light and get back into the left lane when it is safe.