PUTRAJAYA, June 26 — Commuting accidents cost the public up to RM800 million each year via compensation payments by the Social Security Organisation (Socso), said Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran.

"Commuting accidents have resulted in payouts of around RM600 million to RM800 million annually,” he said at the official launch of the Malaysia Commuting Accident and Road Safety Seminar at Putrajaya today.

"The number of deaths in Malaysia from commuting accidents was 25 in 100,000 compared to four in 100,000 in Germany. This is among the highest in the world.”

He credited Germany’s road safety record to its advanced public transportation system.

The minister said there was a 75 per cent increase in commuting accidents from 2008 to 2017.

In 2017, Socso received 69,980 accident reports, of which 47 per cent were commuting accidents.

Of these, there were 667 deaths due to commuting accidents compared to 257 fatalities caused by industrial incidents.

Socso chief executive officer Datuk Seri Mhd Azman Mohammed said his agency has plans to reduce the number of commuting deaths by 10 per cent.

Kulasegaran separately disclosed that there were 11,227 applications for the Employment Insurance Scheme (EIS) since its inception last year, with 8,000 approved.

The EIS was introduced to provide assistance to workers for the loss of employment.