Post-holiday drama

Twas a Wednesday. After a three-hour 'brain-hemorrhage-inducing' meeting here (of which the highlight was a chocolate fondue over lunch..oh my god, blissssss), I made my way back home. It was 4 pm-ish, roads were still pretty clear, so me and ol' faithful trudged along the intertwining roads of Penang. Now, please be informed, am directionally-challenged. One-way streets, misplaced road signs, unfamiliar terrains are the bane of me.

So, it wasn't a surprise old buffoon (me, not the car) ended up taking a wrong turn. That wrong turn took me a good 15 minutes of mat-rempit maneuvering before I saw the familiar Penang Bridge looming ahead of me. Ahh, nice....it's still pretty early, traffic shouldn't be building up, 30 minutes of mencilok here and there and I should be back home faster than you can spell "superfragalisticexpialidocious".

Wrong.

Just as I exited into the bridge, I could see cars going at a snail's pace, s l o w l y and s l o w l y before coming to a complete halt. Another fender-bender lah ni...thought I.

Not a moment later, I heard sirens blaring behind me. Not one, but TWO ambulances squeezed its way ahead. The flashing strobe lights stopped just ahead of me. Boy, must've been an awful accident.

It took me another 5 minutes or so before I got out of the snarl. Saw a white car with it's tyre busted, and a motorcycle that has seen better days. Said a little prayer and hoped no one was badly injured.

Only when I got to the office the next day did I know exactly what happened. Read this.

Shot after high-speed chase
By BERNARD SEE
bernardsee@thestar.com.my

PENANG: A 50-year-old man with a long criminal record was shot by police
after a 10km, high-speed chase from Island Glades here to the Penang Bridge that
caused a huge traffic snarl on both ends of the bridge.

The drama unfolded when two policemen on two motorcycles rode up to a white Nissan Sunny
in Island Glades after suspecting something amiss at 4.45pm yesterday. George Town OCPD Asst Comm Azam Abd Hamid said the driver then sped off.

The policemen gave chase and after a short distance the driver forced one of the policemen, Lans Koperal Zulkifli Md Isa, 42, off the road.

The other, Konstabel Yuhizwan Yusof, 20, continued the chase until Km7 of the Penang Bridge where the driver lost control of his car and crashed after knocking into the policeman's motorcycle.

Closer inspection:
Police personnel checking the crashed car at the Penang Bridge on Wednesday.

“As he was getting out of the car, the constable opened fire and hit the suspect on
the right shoulder.

“Both of them were rushed to the Seberang Jaya Hospital by a Fire and Rescue Department van which was passing by,'' ACP Azam said.

The man, wanted by the police for fleeing a Restricted Residence Enactment order in 1999, has been arrested 22 times before on various charges ranging from theft to drug addiction.

“We searched the vehicle and found an assortment of burglary tools together with a laptop computer and three handbags which could have been stolen,” said ACP Azam.

Thousands of vehicles heading towards the bridge were caught in a traffic snarl after the
incident.

They were pulling an OJ rupanye! Then it dawned on me...had I not been lost on my way to the bridge, I would have possibly arrived at about the same time and spot the shoot-out occured. Being the miss melodramatic that I am, I could have probably witnessed the whole shebang, peed
in my pants, run out of the car, flapped my arms around, screamed like a banshee...and most possibly get shot by a stray bullet.

Another divine intervention?