You tested the drivers, not us, driving school tells JPJ

 

The road transport department announced recently that it planned to suspend or revoke the permits of driving institutes from which many traffic offenders had graduated. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The road transport department (JPJ) has drawn flak for saying it will penalise driving schools for traffic offences and road accidents caused by their former students.

CT Balan, the operations director of a driving school, Safety Driving Centre, said JPJ had no right to do so since its officers were the final examiners of the students.

JPJ announced recently that it planned to suspend or revoke the permits of driving institutes from which many traffic offenders had graduated.

JPJ director-general Zailani Hashim said the department would insert a code in driving licences to identify the driving school a driver had attended.

CT Balan.

Balan said it would be wrong for JPJ to penalise driving schools that adhered to the syllabus and guidelines provided by the department.

Speaking to FMT, he said: “How can JPJ penalise driving schools when we follow its syllabus? In fact, the examiners for the final exam to judge a driver’s competence and adherence to all road regulations are from JPJ itself.”

He said JPJ and other relevant authorities should focus on improving enforcement instead of blaming driving schools for the high number of road accidents and offences.

“Enforcement is very loose and road offenders can easily get away with little to no punishment,” he said. “The authorities must be stricter and more consistent in enforcing the law.”

Between January and September 2021, 255,532 road accidents and 3,302 road deaths were reported.

Balan said JPJ should address the high number of road accidents and offences by introducing a mandatory defensive driving course for all drivers to take after the two-year probationary licence period.

Law Teik Hua.

“If drivers are required to go back for a defensive driving course, they could refresh their knowledge on road regulations and leave with more confidence in handling their vehicles and knowledge on road safety,” he said.

Law Teik Hua, who heads Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Road Safety Research Centre, agreed that it would be unfair for JPJ to penalise driving schools.

He said existing measures to address the issue needed to be better implemented instead.

“We need to think about the Demerit Points System for Traffic Offences (Kejara), which is still around but seems to be ineffective,” he said.

“The tools are there. Why not improve them and make them highly visible to the public?” - FMT