PLUS should have really done a better job

You know with all the road works going on in the PLUS North-South highway, traffic was pretty heavy. Yen and I were headed towards Ipoh on Saturday and to Penang the following day to attend her uni-mate's wedding dinner. We left KL around 1015hrs, traffic was very heavy north-bound. It was worst than the Chinese New Year crawl earlier this year. After 2 hours of driving, I only managed to make it to Sabak Bernam, which was when the car broke down.

I vividly recalled doing 80km/h and I was on the fast lane. Next thing I knew, I heard a clunk and I lost all drive. Bear in mind, this was a 3 lane highway that has been closed down to two due to the stupid road works that PLUS has suddenly decided to undertake. I managed to slowly coast the car to the far left of the lane and pulled to a complete stop.

The next thing I knew, cars were honking at me, even with my hazard lights on. PLUS did not facilitate for a car breakdown and there was literally no emergency lane. I was very much affraid to get down from my car, but I did not have a choice. I tried to crank the car but there was no drive at all. Everything was disabled. This is actually the first time I have experienced a snapped timing belt. I didn't know what it was. Off the top of my head, I was expecting a damaged fuel pump, a dead throttle body or a dead ECU. I walked towards the SOS phone on the PLUS highway and there was no answer from the phone. I kept on trying and there was no response.

Luckily, a tow truck passed by and asked whehter I wanted to be towed to the toll booth. I exited Sabak Bernam toll and I agreed with the tow truck operator to tow me to the nearest workshop. Just as I arrived there, the salesman who sold me the car called me and asked me to prepare for the car to be towed back to KL. They arranged for a tow truck from KL to drive all the way up to Tanjung Malim to tow my car back. Fortunately, all are under warranty.

That was really the longest day of my life. It took 2 hours before the tow truck arrived and we eventually reached KL at 1840hrs. Good thing was, the car dealer arranged a car for me to drive.

Thinking back at this whole incident, PLUS should have really done a better job. The highway operators did not respond to the SOS phone when I tried to use it at 1205hrs, there was no answer at all despite me trying the phone for a long time. Closing down the emergency lanes were really not equipped to handle a broken down car. I was that close to being hit by passing traffic.