Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri, the Deputy Minister of Transportation said that on average, there are 18 deaths each day due to road accidents and that 300 000 children are made orphans because this.
He said that these figures are very worrying and that the government is confident that the best way to handle the issue is to educate the public and create awareness of the importance of road safety and road courtesy at grassroot levels.
“Malaysians like to speed and a review of high-profile road accident cases indicate that the drivers were speeding at 160-180 km/hour’’ he said.
He said this at a press conference after launching the Rakan Trafik@USM Campaign organized by final year Communication students. The Campaign was organised with the collaboration of the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) and PLUS Expressway Bhd here recently.
Among those who participated in the campaign were Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry and Community Network), Prof. Lim Kooon Ong; the Director of MIROS, Prof. Dr. Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah; Managing Director of PLUS Expressway Bhd, Noorizah Abdul Hamid; the Director of the Penang Road Transport Department, Dato’ Hassan Abdul Hamid; and Director of the Penang Road Safety Department, S. Jegan.
Datuk Abdul Rahim added that several approaches have been planned to tackle this problem, including educating and promoting awareness among road users and strengthening the area of enforcement.
“The Rakan Trafik Campaign is an excellent initiative that has been undertaken in view of the fact that education should begin at grassroot level. Perhaps, with this initiative, we can start on a small scale, that is, with the campus community.
“If this objective is firmly entrenched amoung the campus community, I am confident that it can be extended to the societal level, that is, among the Malaysian public,” he said.
He also touched on the aspect of enforcement, which has been described as an important measure that has to be improved upon. This is to ensure that the problem of road accidents can be tackled in a more holistic manner.
He added that among the latest measures that have been introduced by the government is the Automatic Enforcement System (AES) which has been designed to detect traffic violations. The system is expected to be enforced by the end of this year.
Basically, AES is a system where cameras are installed in accident-prone areas to detect speeding and at intersections with traffic lights to detect those who jump the red lights.
Meanwhile, the Rakan Trafik Campaign by USM students, aimed at creating awareness on road safety, encourages those between 18- 25 years of age to constantly remind each other to drive safely.
The organizers believe that besides the other public road safety campaigns, this approach is an effective way to influence drivers to be more safety conscious while driving.
