DBKK to rectify uneven Austral grille covers
Published on: Thursday, March 21, 2019
City Hall plans to attend to the disparity between the levels of a drain and housing road in Austral Park, almost a year after a cyclist fell while going over the grilles covering the former
A spokesman for the agency’s Traffic and Transport Department said its personnel found that a “depression” had formed between the stretch and grilles during an inspection of the road.
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“We hope to upgrade the drain so that it is level with the stretch,” he said on March 13.
‘A tender will be called for this purpose.”
The cyclist still cannot fully open the small finger on his right hand since the fall in May 2018.
When asked how much longer he would have to wait for the drop between the drain and road to be addressed, the spokesman declined to comment.
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“We will have to wait for a contractor to be selected before the work can proceed.”
STEVE, who reported the danger the grills on Lorong Austral 7 presented to cyclists in June last year, couldn’t understand why it was taking City Hall so long to deal with this problem.
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Besides injuring his right hand, he also scrapped his palms.
“I was going to get some breakfast, with my two cyclist friends, around 6.30am on a weekend in May, when this happened,” he said.
As he slowed down to negotiate the slight slope, which led to the covered drain, the front wheel of his bicycle apparently hit one of the grills, throwing him forward.
“I landed head first and fractured my right hand. It took me almost two months to partially recover.
He related his experience to City Hall a week after the accident, in early June.
“I appealed to the agency to consider changing the placement of the grills, from a vertical position to a horizontal one, in the hopes that this might prevent others from falling of their bikes.”
Steve made three subsequent calls to City Hall on August 2, 22 and September 13.
“Despite my effort, I am disappointed to find that my request has, thus far, been ignored.
“The agency shouldn’t take this situation lightly, as many people around the State Capital are active cyclists.”
He pointed out that the former Mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai was one of those individuals.
Steve provided Hotline with the location of the grilles, as well as the date of the incident. This information was forwarded to City Hall in September.
He contacted Hotline again in November and March, bemoaning the agency’s inaction.
“I phoned City Hall only to be told to speak to the officer tasked with looking into my problem.
“I left several messages for this individual but never got a call back.
“I hope the agency is not waiting for a fatality, involving a motorcyclist or cyclist, to occur before dealing with the grilles.”
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