{
  "id": 5698548,
  "title": "Safety audits urged for highway structures and billboards",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/05/safety-audits-urged-for-highway-structures-and-billboards",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-05T02:35:41.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "New Straits Times",
    "slug": "new-straits-times",
    "url": "https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2026/09/1526101/safety-audits-urged-highway-structures-and-billboards"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The Alliance for a Safe Community has urged for regular, comprehensive safety audits of structures along major highways in Malaysia following an incident on the New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE) last night. A large structure fell across the highway at Km8.4, blocking all northbound lanes and causing a massive traffic jam. Chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye emphasized that structures such as billboards, overhead gantries, and signboards are exposed to risks including heavy rain, strong winds, corrosion, material fatigue, deterioration of joints and bolts, and ageing. He stressed that any structure found to be unsafe, severely deteriorated, or non-compliant with safety requirements should be repaired, reinforced, or removed immediately. The audit should examine the physical condition of these structures, the stability of their foundations, joints and bolts, corrosion levels, structural integrity, and their ability to withstand weather conditions and other environmental stresses. Lee also called for a comprehensive inventory of all structures and billboards installed along highways, including details of their owners, dates of installation, parties responsible for maintenance, and dates of their latest safety inspections.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}