PUTRAJAYA, Nov 21 — The failure to reduce the number of road accidents clearly shows that efforts to improve road safety have failed and needs to be revised, Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Aziz Kaprawi disclosed yesterday.
He said the ministry must acknowledge defeat as the Malaysian road-management system was unsuccessful in lowering the number of road accidents this year.
“It is time for good governance in a holistic way, we have failed and we must admit it, let’s take this failure seriously,” said Aziz during the National Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) event here.
These problems are caused by bad governance over road safety efforts that have not achieved their objectives,” he said.
Aziz revealed that some 20 people die in car crashes daily nationwide, and that number was supposed to be reduced through national road safety campaigns but that has not been the case.
This year, 5038 people have died in road accidents nationwide, out of which more than half were motorcyclists.
“This is a worrying statistic, road accidents are now the fourth largest cause of death in Malaysia,” said Aziz.
“We must face reality, accidents are more rampant now than ever before and it will keep on increasing if we do not do something about it.
“It is important for all relevant agencies to sit down and come up with a new approach to address the issue.
“All parties such as the Malaysian Road Safety Department (MRSD), Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research and the Land Public Transport Commission must get involved,” he added.
Aziz said one of the best ways to reduce road accidents would be through public transport, while reiterating the importance of having a functional and reliable system to give Malaysians an alternative to driving.
MRSD director Datuk Rosli Isa said the country had incurred some RM16 billion in losses for the lives lost from road accidents.
“For every person who has been lost, the country is forced to fork out as much as RM2.34 million.
“We have lost close to 8,000 lives last year, MRSD is fully ready to work together with the government to stop this problem,” he said.
Rosli said the increase of some 1.5 million registered cars annually also contributed to the number of accidents.
“We see as many as 500,000 more drivers on the road every year, we hope to reduce this number by improving on the country’s transportation infrastructure.
“This includes e-hailing services that are available, accidents can’t happen if there are less cars on the road driven by more educated and experienced drivers.
“Enforcement efforts play an important role as well. We receive monthly reports from the police but we may need to increase the frequency of police traffic operations,” said Rosli.
Aziz has set the goal that by 2020, 50 per cent of the current number of annual road accidents must be reduced.
He also cited Sweden as an exemplary country where the accident rate is 10 times lower than Malaysia.
Aziz also said Singapore’s approach in requiring a Certificate of Entitlement for purchasing a vehicle was a possible strategy Malaysia could adopt.
