When a shelter becomes a death trap

The recent Maju Expressway (MEX) crash, in which a car rammed into a motorcyclist sheltering from a storm under a bridge, was not an anomaly.

In Malaysia, heavy rain is routine. For motorcyclists, blinding downpours can quickly turn life-threatening. Visibility collapses, roads flood, and riders are left exposed to fast-moving traffic.

The choice becomes stark: keep riding half-blind or stop under a bridge or flyover.

Too often, these spots become kill zones. On Setiawangsa Pantai Expressway (SPE), a vehicle lost control in heavy rain and ploughed into motorcyclists sheltering under a bridge, killing one and injuring others.

On the New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE) near Cyberjaya, multiple riders died when a car skidded into a group taking refuge beneath an overhead structure. Similar incidents have occurred on the Sungai Besi-Ulu Kelang Expressway (SUKE) and other urban highways.

The pattern is clear: rain reduces visibility and traction; vehicles lose control and veer towards shoulders or bridge columns.

This hazard is well known. Authorities have warned riders against sheltering under bridges, and some highway operators have built limited shelters.

Yet the response remains superficial: advisories, scattered infrastructure and post-incident statements.

These riders are not reckless; they are delivery workers, shift employees, commuters and gig riders with nowhere safe to go when rain comes.

On corridors such as the Federal Highway, NKVE, SUKE, MEX, SPE and PLUS, proper shelters are used where they exist. Where they do not, bridges become the default.

This is not a behavioural problem; it is a design failure. A system that leaves vulnerable road users with only unsafe options is negligent.

The institutions responsible for road safety have the data, authority and capability to act.

The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research understands motorcycle fatality patterns; the transport and works ministries can set standards; concessionaires have shown shelters can be built.

What is missing is urgency. We have normalised a dangerous status quo: warnings without safe alternatives, and a known lethal practice tolerated instead of engineered out.

Authorities must first audit bridge-shelter hotspots across major highways and treat them as high-risk zones requiring immediate intervention.

Dedicated motorcycle shelters must then be mandatory on highways with significant motorcycle traffic: barrier-protected, well-lit, properly placed and treated as core safety infrastructure.

Once safe alternatives exist, under-bridge stopping must be discouraged through barriers, markings and enforcement.

Wet-weather motorcycle risk must also be built into national road safety planning. In a tropical country, heavy rain is structural; the response must be too.

Above all, authorities must move beyond advisories. When a behaviour is known to kill and its causes are clear, reminders are not enough.

Every rider who shelters under a bridge during a storm is acting on a basic instinct: survival. If that instinct puts them in danger, the failure is systemic.

Until safe, visible and accessible shelters are standard across Malaysia’s highways, every downpour will carry the same grim reality: a rider betting their life against a preventable danger.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.