Covid-19: Avoid travelling during rush hour period, cops advise non-essential vehicles

KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — Federal police today urged those who are not under essential services category to avoid travelling during the rush hour period, to avoid traffic congestions.

Bukit Aman Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department director DCP Datuk Azisman Alias said the recent loosening of the movement control order (MCO) on certain economic sectors in stages has seen a marked increase in vehicles on the road.

“The congestions occur in the morning from 7am to 10am, sometimes even up to 12pm. The evening is also similar, from 5pm to 7pm and even up to 9pm,” he said during a press conference at the Bukit Aman national police headquarters.

Although most of these individuals on the roads during the rush hour period are in compliance with existing regulation including only one person per vehicle, Azisman said they were mostly travelling for non-essential reasons.

“The most common explanation given is to buy groceries, usually in the morning period. But the increase in traffic usually means those working in the police, army, healthcare and media, among others, are unable to get to their destinations on time.

“Therefore we can only advise these non-essential travellers to do so outside the rush hour period. Even others like commercial vehicles are advised to travel between the hours of 8pm to 7am, in order to lessen the congestions,” he said.

Azisman added that his department has since identified a number of roadblock locations that can potentially become congested, including six in KL, five in Selangor, and four in Melaka.

Several steps have been taken to prevent or alleviate congestions at roadblocks, including opening a special lane for essential services and frontliners and deploying drone teams to monitor traffic conditions, among others.

Separately on the subject of accident rates during the ongoing MCO period, now in its third phase, Azisman said there has been a considerable drop since the order began on March 18.

“I can safely say the drop has reached up to 70 per cent when compared to the pre-MCO average accident rate. From March 18 to April 14, there have been 10,382 cases, 310 of them fatal with 145 deaths.

“The pre-MCO accident rate was around 1,500 cases a day, with 14 to 17 deaths. The current daily rate is at an average of 371 cases, with five deaths,” he said.