Road safety experts in Malaysia named distracted driving—specifically, watching entertainment content—as a major cause of road accidents in the country.
Screens and smartphones
Smartphones may be useful to drivers as mini-navigation systems, but these gadgets can pose a significant risk for distraction. Datuk Suret Singh, an executive council member of the Road Safety Council of Malaysia, named distracted driving as a major cause of road accidents in Malaysia.
“A two-second loss of full focus on the road is all it takes for a deadly road crash,” Singh said. He cited a study from Malaysia’s Transport Ministry, which concluded that 45 per cent of drivers involved in road accidents were using their phones while driving.
“Entertainment content should be meant solely for passengers, not drivers,” he said, adding that regulations should be in place for screens in vehicles.
The two-second slip
Road safety experts warned that even a two-second lapse in attention can have serious consequences. Universiti Putra Malaysia road safety centre Head Associate Professor, Dr. Law Teik Hua, driving while watching content on phones require “sustained visual and mental engagement.” This means that while drivers may look at the road while watching content, their visual attention will inevitably prioritise the screen.
“Film-viewing driver distraction can therefore pose comparable levels of road safety hazards as mobile phone use, or even greater hazards under certain circumstances,” he said. “Mental distraction is also a concern as drivers could remain visually focused on the road but have their minds occupied by the film.”
According to Dr. Law, driver attentiveness must be addressed, instead of a device’s hands-free capabilities. The expert said that drivers may overestimate their ability to multitask and that even brief glances away from the road can be dangerous, especially at intersections, high speeds, or heavy traffic.
Md Hairolzaman Nor, president of the Malaysian Road and Transport Safety Association, explained that watching videos or entertainment content can cause “inattentional blindness.” This refers to a situation where the driver may have his eyes on the road but is unaware of the situation in front of them.
Entertainment content, unlike navigation displays, require visual, cognitive, and audio processing. If a driver focuses their mental attention on a video rather than the road, they may be less aware their surroundings, such as warning signs or noises, like sirens or horns.
Suggesting solutions
Law suggested that regulations should not focus on limiting onboard displays as these are used by drivers to monitor navigation systems and other functions. The focus should be on prohibiting entertainment content, which can easily distract drivers and take their eyes off the road.
Hairolzaman suggested that Malaysia’s road traffic laws should also consider “digital distractions.” Some of his suggestions include higher fines or license suspension for those who install bypass software to allow entertainment content to be played on the dashboard.
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