ISN’T it amazing how, hardly 20 minutes after a road accident happens, the tow trucks and their truckers come bearing down from every corner imaginable, on the car owners involved in the accident?

It’s as if they were waiting just around the corner, watching… waiting for an accident to happen.

Isn’t it more than a coincidence when a car crashes into you and you just can’t explain how it happened? You had taken all precautions. You looked left. You looked right. You looked into the rear and side mirrors. You knew that the car was still a distance away. You turn. Then suddenly the car speeds up and slams into you. The next thing you know, the dude who crashed you doesn’t want to give his phone number and doesn’t want to give his MyKad number. Instead the tow truck ahbeng-sharks come along.

You want to make a police report. In good faith, you ask for the police’s hotline number (which incidentally no one picks up when you call or they put you on hold forever). Then the sharks give you a ‘direct’ number to a copper. The copper tells you that there isn’t a patrol car within the vicinity. Then he tells you to go to the station to make a report. The sharks take photos (these tow truck guys these days are very changgih… they all carry digital cameras). They take the photos from the ANGLES that THEY NEED…any description to make it “obvious” that you were in the wrong.

You’re still in a daze. The next thing you realise is that the tow sharks have coerced you into letting them “settle” your car and the insurance matters. Realisation dawns on you, slowly (or when friends and family members hammer it into your head…) that you should have taken you car to your own mechanic.

The tow sharks ahbengs, the idiotic jokers that they are, start to talk tough, show muscle and show numbers… to intimidate you. Insurance claims my foot! They’ll jack the prices up and ask you to pay first while the claims are processed. If you’re smart and you’ve got streetwise friends and family, you’ll be able to get you car back without them fixing it and charging the heavens. If not, you’re at the mercy of these rough talking tow sharks… because the coppers won’t step into the matter.

Not all workshops or tow truck operators are sharks. There are some honest, hard-working workshops who do not have their tow truckers prey on accidents. But for those who are sharks, there are a several questions that arise. First of all, was this entire drama arranged? Why won’t the other driver give his phone and MyKad numbers, but instead deal with the tow sharks?

Secondly, why did the tow sharks refer you to one particular copper on his direct line? Who’s getting the ‘kantow’ here?

Third, do these tow sharks have the right to coerce you into taking your car?

Fourth, why do these tow sharks walk in and out of the back rooms of the police station like they own the place and why don’t the coppers stop them?

We all know the very obvious answers to that. The question that we’re still hazy about is, why does this sort of fishy business still go on despite all the talk by the authorities about being anti-corrupt and flushing out the dirty laundry?

Comments this way at matalelah@yahoo.co.uk