The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) found that more than 80 per cent of the country’s road accidents are due to driver behaviour, rather than road conditions. Malaysia’s Minister of Works, Alexander Nanta Linggi presented these findings last 2 August in an interview with publication Mingguan Malaysia.
DRIVER BEHAVIOUR
“Based on Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) findings, out of more than 500,000 accident cases, there were 12,000 serious injuries and 6,000 deaths — 4,000 of them involving motorcyclists. Only around 12-13% are due to road factors, including damage and weather. In contrast, more than 80% are due to driver behaviour,” he explained.
According to the minister, the public is most likely to blame Malaysia’s existing road conditions whenever accidents occur. Nanta is pushing for more awareness of bad driver habits, like distracted driving and disregarding speed limits.
“There needs to be more advocacy to drivers to ensure safety while driving, including not using mobile phones,” he said.
THE GERIK ACCIDENT
The minister also mentioned the tragic school bus accident from last June which claimed the lives of at least 15 passengers, all students. Labelled as a national emergency, Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport (MoT) launched an investigation to discover the cause of the deadly collision.
“According to the official MoT report and the viral dashcam footage, the accident happened due to speeding. The speed limit in that area is 60 km/h, but the bus was travelling at 117 km/h, nearly double,” Nanta explained.
Nanta went on to say that despite the existence of damaged roads throughout Malaysia, MIROS’ findings point to human error and negligence as the primary cause of road accidents.
ROAD SAFETY IN MALAYSIA
Though Nanta disclosed MIROS’ findings this week, the same conclusion was revealed by then-Road Transport Department (JPJ) director-general Zailani Hashim as early as 2022. According to Zailani, the remaining 20 per cent of of road accident causes are “vehicles (technical, brakes and others) and outside factors such as the roads (condition, environment, weather and others).”
Zailani emphasised that the JPJ is doing its best to ensure safe roads for the country. “Various steps are taken to avoid road accidents, including in the aspects of advocacy, literacy, provocation, notification and legislation. All these steps are taken to ensure that road users always follow the road regulations and laws that have been set,” he said.
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