We know that many lose their lives on the road from the many accidents that we see in the news and sometimes, with our own eyes. But there’s nothing like some context to really drive home the point that road accidents is a huge killer in Malaysia. Remember Covid-19, the fear its virus created and the amount of disruption to normal life? Of course you do.
To highlight how deadly road accidents are, deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi pointed out that there are more people who die on the roads than the total Covid-19 death toll. “This is why more needs to be done to increase public awareness as the main form of prevention, especially when looking at road accident statistics,” he said at the Conference on Asia Road Safety (CARS) 2024 in Putrajaya yesterday, reported by Astro Awani.
“Malaysia is among the Southeast Asian countries facing this issue, especially involving motorcycle riders. Although the death rate per 100,000 people came down from 27% in in year 2000 to 22.5% in 2019, it’s still among the highest in the world,” added Zahid, who chairs the cabinet committee on road safety and traffic congestion. Motorcycle riders and their pillions made up 65% of road accident deaths last year.
He proceeded with another chilling illustration to ram home the point – there are over 6,000 road accident deaths involving motorcyclists every year, and the burial space required for that is almost the size of six football fields. That’s a lot of graves.
One move designed to reduce this is ABS being mandatory for motorcycles with an engine capacity of 150cc and above, beginning January 1, 2025. At the same event, Zahid also said that the government plans to reduce the speed limit in school zones by 10 km/h to 30 km/h, and might expand this to other areas if the move bears fruit.
The Bagan Datuk MP said that the responsibility to reduce road accidents doesn’t just fall on the transport ministry alone, but it should be a joint effort among various agencies. He praised the proactive efforts of Perkeso in encouraging workers who use motorcycles to contribute to the social security fund, which is important in ensuring the welfare of bikers should they get into an accident.
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