OCTOBER 13 — The intuitive answer is “Yes”. The truth is “Not Really”.

Given the recent tragic lorry accidents (especially at the Bukit Kajang Toll Plaza), it is natural for many Malaysians to believe that lorries are the #1 cause of accidents and fatalities on the road. 

Coupled with the flurry of TikTok videos of lorry accidents practically every day we may be forgiven if we start thinking that a majority of crashes are a result of lorries and a majority of traffic deaths attributable to these big vehicles.

We’re all susceptible to the availability bias i.e. drawing erroneous conclusions based on the frequency and immediacy (or “availability”) of what we encounter or witness — so when it comes to lorry and road accidents the association would naturally be strong (see note 1).

Without at all denying the severity and seriousness of lorry accidents (not least the urgency for the government to address these problems), it’s perhaps helpful to remind everyone of a plain fact: Lorries are not the biggest culprit when it comes to Malaysian road accidents.

Official data from the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) confirm that motorcycles and passenger cars dominate road accident fatalities and cases, with motorcycles alone accounting for 65-70 per cent of fatalities in recent years. 

Lorries (or heavy goods vehicles) contribute far less — typically under 5-7 per cent of total accidents and even fewer fatalities relative to their involvement.

For example, in 2023, Malaysia recorded 6,443 road fatalities, with 4,448 (69 per cent) involving motorcyclists (see Note 2). 

Passenger cars made up the next largest share, pushing the combined total for motorcycles and cars well over 90 per cent of fatalities. 

Lorries were implicated in only about 5.73 per cent of highway accidents (a subset of total crashes), per the Malaysian Highway Authority’s data. Likewise in 2024, lorries account for only 4-5 per cent of road accidents. 

Putting this a bit simplistically, if we were to remove every lorry from Malaysian roads, about 90-95 per cent of road accidents and deaths would still occur!

Again, historical trends (2016-2023) from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) and police data show motorcycles consistently at 60 per cent+ of fatalities, cars at 20-30 per cent, and lorries at ~6-7 per cent of accidents (not fatalities). 

A 2018 Miros-backed study estimated motorcycles and cars at over 90 per cent of total road user involvement in fatal crashes; this trend has largely remained consistent up to 2025 and will likely be the case for the foreseeable future.

One reason for this is because there simply aren’t enough lorries on the road compared to cars and bikes. 

Combined, the number of registered cars and bikes exceeds 33 million. Lorries? Fewer than 1.5 million. There are just not enough lorries to be the “#1 cause” of accidents in the country.

Having said that, it cannot be denied that in an accident lorries are disproportionately more likely to cause fatalities than cars. Despite scoring low percentage-wise in the total number of accidents, they punch above their weight when it comes to the number of deaths. 

This is to make the (obvious) point that when lorries hit other cars (or vice-versa) the chances of more fatalities occurring are higher. 

However, to claim that lorries are the top cause of accidents on Malaysian roads and the top cause of highway deaths is dubious (and potentially dangerous) given the sheer ubiquity of smaller vehicles and how many fatalities and accidents they cause.

So, yes, lorry safety is not to be taken for granted. Lorry operators simply must ensure their vehicles and drivers comply strictly with regulations. 

But we must not be so focused on the danger from big vehicles (an issue which is largely out of our hands) that we forget that the majority of cases and deaths involve cars and bikes (the very vehicles most Malaysians use!).

Note 1: I recall, back in 2001, in the light of the Twin Tower attacks in New York many Americans stopped taking flights and decided to travel by car instead. The sight (repeated over and over again) of Boeings slamming into one of the tallest buildings in the world was just too much for many folks; the idea that air travel was no longer safe became cemented in many people’s minds.

Note 2: Lorries claimed about 1,400 deaths within six years (2018 to 2024). This is no doubt a tragic number yet, seen from the perspective of annual deaths (about 6,000), it’s relatively small and highlights the hazards of even “normal” cars and bikes. 

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.