With rising road accidents and deaths, police wants urgent change of attitudes

This year’s Hari Raya Aidilfitri season saw an increase in traffic accidents, deaths and summons compared to the same period in 2018.

Statistics from the police’s nationwide road safety operation, Op Selamat 15, registered 24,461 accidents - a 9.1 percent rise from last year’s 22,411.

Across 15 days from May 29 to Jun 12, a total of 249 people died on the road, one more than last year.

Of the 249 deaths, 158 (63 percent) were motorcyclists and 60 (24 percent) were car users.

Police issued 350,537 summons over the period, constituting an almost two percent hike from last year’s 343,863 summons.

Almost 60 percent of summons (207,106) were for driving over the speed limit.

According to Deputy Inspector-General of Police Mazlan Mansor (photo), the top cause for accidents was negligent driving - of which 27 percent of all cases were classified under.

Speaking at a press conference in Bukit Aman today, he called for urgent attention to the long-standing problem of Malaysian road users ignoring traffic rules.

“If we look at what is happening now, very little emphasis is placed on road rules.

“A traffic light could be right in front of us but motorcyclists would treat it like it is not there!

“[...] Road users today have a selfish attitude and do not care about others, this is something which I think warrants attention,” he said after presenting awards to the best performing police contingents during Op Selamat 15.

“If this attitude does not change, we will not be able to reduce the number of road accidents [...] we have organised many advocacy programmes but they seem to be ignored,” he added.

Cops vow ‘total enforcement’

At the Op Selamat 15 launch last month, police and the Road Transport Department vowed to step up enforcement by placing more officers on the road as well as at rest and service areas.

Following these numbers, Mazlan said the police would continue to do so even after the festive period.

“Our strategy after this will be ‘total enforcement’ on such lawlessness - including those who ignore traffic lights, don’t wear their safety belts and speaking on the phone when driving,” he said.

Mazlan stressed that the police alone could not change driving attitudes and urged a similar zeal by relevant government agencies to improve driver education.

With the rising number of vehicles and highways in the country, he said that more police officers were needed to patrol them.

“We have to cope with the current infrastructure and we would welcome opportunities to present our request for more police officers, especially traffic police,” he said during the press conference.  - Mkini