AS my husband was turning in from the Federal Highway heading towards the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (under the bridge), before the underpass in front of Western Digital on Sept 27 a car on our left suddenly swerved into our lane.

Thinking that we were in the “blind spot” of the other car, my husband sounded the horn lightly to warn the other driver of our presence.

With a child in a car seat at the back of the car, my husband was just being cautious when he horned – not out of anger. But much to our dismay, the other driver took it to heart. He slowed down his car, hogging the road and holding up traffic behind us.

Luckily we had kept a safe distance and avoided a potential accident. When I turned to look at the speedometer, we were only travelling at 30kph on the highway.

After “cruising” for about two minutes, he signalled us to pull over. We obeyed as his car bore the words “Pegawai Penyiasat Trafik”.

He got down nodding his head, looking authoritative in his white uniform. He asked for my husband’s licence and took a picture of our car number plate.

My husband calmly explained why he had sounded the horn. The officer merely retorted, “Are you a man or a woman? I move my car a little and you get scared?” Realising what he had just said, he quickly changed the story to say that he was in a hurry and that we were in his way. He then started a small lecture on “keeping to one’s lane when driving”.

My husband just said, “If you want to issue us a summons, please do, if not, let us move on since you are in a hurry.” With that, the officer gave another short lecture on how to drive, returned my husband’s licence and left us.

Dumbfounded and shocked, I watched as the officer sped off with his left indicator light still on, while his car moved towards the extreme right of the highway. Immediately, another horn sounded.

This may be an isolated incident but I do hope that the people entrusted to uphold the law, firstly uphold the basic law of courtesy and respect.

I am sorry that my young son was exposed to this episode at such an age where first impressions do matter.

Source: The Sun – October 7, 2009