U-turn on medical exam will affect road safety

Road traffic accidents in Malaysia are on an increasing trend – they rose from 533,575 cases in 2017 to 548,598 in 2018.

World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics in 2016 estimated the road traffic death rate (per 100,000 population) for Malaysia at 23.6 compared to 12.2 for Indonesia and 2.8 for Singapore.

Countries worse than Malaysia included Zimbawe at 34.7, Thailand (32.7) and Vietnam (26.4).

The Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018 by WHO highlighted the road traffic accidents were the leading killer of people aged five to 29 years.

Road safety is a shared responsibility, and reducing risks in the road traffic system requires commitment and informed decision-making by the government and related agencies. After every major festival, the media will splash the latest statistics of fatal road accidents and there will be an outcry over the number of deaths and injuries.

Malaysia’s road traffic accident statistics clearly show that efforts by the transport ministry and related agencies, like the Road Transport Department (JPJ), have failed.

The three main factors contributing to accidents are the road, the vehicle and the driver. Malaysia has good roads compared to our neighbours. We use almost similar vehicles. That leaves the other variable – drivers – as the most likely factor contributing to the poor Malaysian statistics.

We have a good set of laws governing the roads but, as usual, they are poorly enforced.

Similarly, officers from the health ministry (MOH) were involved in formulating a comprehensive medical examination for commercial drivers.

As a former MOH director-general put it, “driving a motor vehicle is a complex task involving perception, appropriate judgment, a designated response time and reasonable physical capabilities. A range of medical conditions may impair one’s driving ability resulting in a crash causing injury or death”.

Hence a comprehensive medical examination will be able to pick up conditions that can alter the above capabilities.

Experts spent years to come up with a format which was discussed with multi-department specialists and agencies. The main aim was to play a vital role in reducing mortality on our roads, thus reducing the suffering of loved ones. Drivers themselves began to realise the importance of the examination once explained to them by doctors.

However, the transport ministry made the unilateral decision to reverse this requirement without consulting other stakeholders after the usual initial grouses from some drivers.

They seemed to trade the safety of millions of road users for populist support.

Hence, years of work done by the medical experts were wasted by the action of the transport ministry, especially the minister.

So, don’t be surprised if our road fatalities increase to the likes of Zimbabwe, no thanks to the transport ministry.

Dr Sivanaesan Letchumanan is an FMT reader.