A video circulating on social media is a textbook example of what not to do when you miss your highway exit. In the clip, a Mercedes-Benz that had overshot an exit is seen reversing back along the highway towards the ramp – straight into the path of the vehicle recording the video, which had to take evasive action to avoid it. No contact was made, but it was a close-run thing, and an entirely avoidable one.
Let’s be absolutely clear about this: if you miss an exit, there is exactly one correct course of action, and that is to carry on to the next one. Reversing towards the ramp – even “slowly” on the emergency lane with the hazard lights on – or worse still, turning around and driving against the flow of traffic, is never an option.
Consider the physics. Traffic on our highways travels at 110 km/h, which works out to just over 30 metres covered every single second. Drivers scan the road ahead for vehicles moving in the same direction; nobody expects to find one stationary in a live lane, let alone moving backwards.
By the time an approaching driver has processed what they’re seeing, precious reaction time is gone and braking distance may simply have run out. And an emergency swerve at highway speed brings dangers of its own, dragging vehicles in adjacent lanes into the incident – so even if the offending car is never actually hit, it can easily cause a collision among everyone around it.
Spare a thought, too, for motorcyclists, who tend to keep to the left of the carriageway – precisely where a car reversing along the shoulder or slow lane would be. With two fewer contact patches on the road and none of the crash protection a car provides, an emergency manoeuvre that is merely frightening for a driver can be fatal for a rider.
It is also, it should go without saying, against the law. Reversing along a highway or driving against the flow of traffic is an offence, and should it end in a crash, dangerous driving charges under the Road Transport Act – with fines, jail terms and licence disqualification on the menu – await.
Set against all of that, the cost of doing the right thing is trivial. There will always be another exit or interchange further ahead that will still get you to your destination, and the extra few minutes, fuel and toll are a very, very small price to pay compared to a potential collision and the risk of injury or death from going against traffic.
How not to miss your exit in the first place
Better still, set yourself up so you don’t miss the exit at all. Route planning goes a long way – a quick preview of your journey before setting off tells you roughly where your exit falls and which interchanges come before it, so it doesn’t ambush you on the day.
Use navigation. Practically everyone has a smartphone these days, and Waze and Google Maps are free. Paired with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto – or at minimum a proper phone holder – you get turn-by-turn directions with lane guidance well ahead of every split. Keep voice guidance switched on, so your eyes stay on the road instead of darting down to a screen.
Read the signboards. Exits on our expressways are signposted well in advance – typically at 2 km, 1 km and 500 m before the ramp – so treat the first board as your cue to start working across to the left. Getting into the correct lane early is the single best insurance against a missed exit; leaving it to the final 200 metres is how panicked last-second swerves (and missed exits) happen.
If you do find yourself at a split genuinely unsure of which way to go, staying on the main carriageway is the safer default – you can always recover at the next interchange.
Finally, manage the distractions. A lively conversation, a phone notification or fiddling with the infotainment is all it takes to sail past a perfectly well-signposted exit.
And if, despite all of the above, you still miss it – maybe you misheard the voice prompt, maybe the kids were making a racket – keep calm and carry on. The next exit isn’t going anywhere, and neither should you be. Certainly not backwards.
This is a good reminder to many. Good on PT for putting this up.
They are just plain selfish bugger.
Drivers license should be revoked, its almost certain death if an incident occurs, esp for motorcyclists. 10 mins of time savings in exchange with the maker?
Happening too often, all over – if there’s a video recording of this, should the authorities take action?
Thanks PT for highlighting as an article, the more exposure to the matter the better
reversing on highway is either trying to commit suicide or commit murder
A very simple solution is to know which exit to go from.the beginning. Say the exit to Gurun is 173, the number is a lot faster to read and brain.
This is also mentioned by the 2 online maps google and ways (sorry, waze) I havent tried yet with LLM Tuju apps even though has been downloaded.
Numbering system is not only applicable to highways but also to major service roads as well like Exit 1907 is for Jalan Taman Putra and Hulu Langat. Exit 833 is Cherating and Telok Cempedak Kuantan. Happy hunting.
I almost hit a car that emergency braked because it missed the Selayang exit on Jalan Kuching. On the right lane no less. Really honk & curse the bugger and lucky no car behind me.
On a more humorous note, I once missed an exit on DASH. A long and expensive lesson to U-turn.