Lack of awareness causes traffic jams in Sandakan

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Traffic jam from Mile 5 roadblock (Petron Mile 5) up to Mile 7 roundabout (about two miles).

SANDAKAN: Three roadblocks here caused unusually massive traffic jams yesterday, with vehicles queueing as long as three miles.

While traffic jam at the roadblock in Jalan Lintas Utara (Nasalim roundabout) is a daily scenario during the Movement Control Order (MCO), unexpectedly long traffic jams were also seen at roadblocks in town (near Sandakan Community Hall) and Petron Mile 5, yesterday.

Vehicles were seen queueing from Petron Mile 5 until Mile 7 roundabout (eagle roundabout), and from town (in front of Sandakan Community Hall) to Bandar Ramai-Ramai.

This reporter had driven around Sandakan road yesterday and found that the number of vehicles on the road was high, like a normal working day.

Sandakan district police chief (ACP) Mohd Azhar Hamin said there are still a lot of people in Sandakan who are not aware that they need to stay in their own zones.

Sandakan is currently divided into two zones: Zone A (Batu Sapi to town to Mile 4), and Zone B (Mile 5 onwards), and residents who want to go to the banks, markets, supermarkets, pharmacies and so on, must do so in their own zones.

“Only those under essential services and those who need to go to the hospital are allowed to pass,” he said.

Azhar said that due to the people’s ignorance, a lot of vehicles had been asked to turn back at the roadblocks.

“Most of the vehicles are people who want to go to the supermarkets to buy things. They do not know that they could not go pass Mile 5. These motorists are ordered to turn back. These are the vehicles that are causing the traffic jams at the roadblocks,” he said.

Yesterday, locals who noticed the development had also taken the matter to their Facebook posts. Most of them were curious as to where all the vehicles came from and where they were heading to.

“That is a lot of cars! Where are they going? Are they even taking MCO seriously?” questioned one Facebook user here.

One local road user who is working under the essential service, Joseph Hing, said that he has taken the same road home every working day during MCO period, but found that the traffic jam was worse than usual yesterday.

He said it took him almost two hours to get from Mile 8 to Mile 2, which is about 15 minutes away on normal days.

Meanwhile, Sandakan Municipal Council (SMC) president Wong Foo Tin said the situation is worrying as cars that go from Zone B (Mile 5 to Mile 8) to Zone A (town to Mile 4) reach up to 4,000 vehicles per day.

“The number of cars going out is at a worrying state, we could see serious traffic jam in Mile 5 area,” Wong said.

He said this situation is not healthy during MCO because the people are supposed to stay at home and not wander around or go out to buy things every day because it could be very dangerous.

“Even though we have encouraged the local community to purchase food and essential items with amount that could last longer (if they could afford it) so that they do not need to go out every day, this suggestion has been objected and criticized by many on social media. They still think that this is a small matter.

“The public are reminded that every time they go out to the public market or supermarket to buy things, they are at risk of getting infected with Covid-19,” he said.

Wong asked for the cooperation from all people in Sandakan district to restrict their movement during the MCO period.

“If you are still going here and there, the government’s effort to stop the spread of Covid-19 would be for nothing. Your action will make all the efforts by most of the people who obey the MCO go to waste,” he stressed.