I am writing this letter after having read of the bus accident at Tanjong Malim. As reported in the press, there are witnesses who claimed that the bus driver was not speeding and he wasn't a reckless driver either. Instead, they too felt that the road was slippery.

I am, therefore, quite confident that the 'wearing course' of the new lanes are therefore not suitable for this expressway.

I am a frequent user of our North-South Expressway and I have this important experience to highlight and share.

I was driving back to Penang last month when I saw an unfortunate accident in the opposite direction involving the passenger bus that skidded and overturned at Tanjung Malim.

I didn't know that the bus was from my hometown Penang until I watched the TV news later in the evening and was shocked to learn that the accident took two lives.

Now, this is what I need to share.

I am a building contractor with over twenty years of experience and I have been driving my Five series BMW (latest generation and a solid road holding car) each time I travel to KL.

Lately, the new extended three-lane parts of the highway have been opened up for use and since then, I have also been using them quite often.

However, when I drive each time it is wet, I can really 'feel' that the new road surface is extremely slippery. To share with some of you, my car comes with a built-in traction control mechanism (a skidding prevention mechanism) and you can feel it each time it is activated.

Previously, I never came across this kind of slippery feel except when I drive over a puddle of water at a certain speed.

From my observation as a building contractor, the 'wearing course' of the new road surface could be too fine or too smooth and totally unsuitable for highway use.

The wearing course (top premix layer) mix design for highways should be of a minimum 20mm coarse aggregate mix that will give us the required bond between the surface and our tyres.

A fine wearing course (14mm coarse aggregate size and below) is only suitable for normal roads. A proper test needs to be carried out to determine the mix design of the wearing course.

Since the opening of the highway’s three-lane stretches I had seen cars skidding in front me or in the opposite direction.

Approximately two weeks ago, one of my friends - who is also a frequent user of our NSE - came to share with me about this ‘slippery feeling’ as well as his account of the many cars he had seen skidding there lately.

I am highlighting this in hope that a thorough investigation could be carried out immediately to find out how or what causes vehicles to skid along these stretches of the highway.

A proper and independent test needs to be carried out urgently to determine the design mix of the wearing course. This can save lives.

By: Jensen Yeoh