Smart Tunnel - Nightmare Scenario

Just before the Smart tunnel opened earlier this year, I was chatting to a friend about it, and he told me that he would never use it because of the "Daylight" nightmare scenario. Daylight is a movie starring Sylvester Stallone which was about, you guessed it, a flooded tunnel.

I laughed off his fears, and thought the guys operating the tunnel had too much at stake letting that happen.

Well, guess I was wrong after all. On Tuesday 16 October 2007, the approach road to the tunnel flooded, raising the possibility of the "Daylight" scenario. What made the incident infuriating was the finger pointing after the fact, instead of showing concern and trying to find a solution.

I estimate that during peak hours, there's probably a good few hundred vehicles in the tunnel, and the real possibility of the nightmare scenario happening is too horrifying to contemplate.

Granted, the flooding happened to a cause external to the tunnel, but I would have expected the people involved to take the issue seriously and try to find a solution urgently rather than start the blame game. After all, not just the company involved, but the whole nation has a lot to lose should the unthinkable happen and lives are lost.