As deaths rise, Loke says cops to release daily road accident data

As part of government efforts to raise awareness of rising deaths on the road, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the police will soon be releasing daily data on the number of accidents nationwide.

Speaking to reporters in Parliament, he said the decision was made at a cabinet committee meeting on road safety and traffic, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi earlier today.

“Last year, a total of 6,643 people died in road accidents. The highest number in five years.

“From the figure, 4,480 were motorcyclists, an average of 12 deaths a day, or one death in every two hours,” he said.

Real-time figures

Loke said he highlighted in the meeting that the death toll from road accidents last year was even higher than the average daily Covid-19 deaths during the pandemic.

“This is a very serious number. Road accident statistics are at present released once a year.

“That does not provide a picture that can raise public concern,” he said.

He said a decision was made for police to compile real-time data on daily accidents nationwide and release it in a similar way to how Covid-19 infections and deaths were reported in the past.

He added the media can also play a role in reporting the daily accident numbers.

On another issue, Loke said public transport company Prasarana Malaysia Bhd has called for an open tender to install card readers in Rapid KL buses and enable the implementation of an “open payment system” that can accept all forms of cashless transactions.

“I have asked Prasarana to start with buses because the rail networks will require further integration (of the open payment system) but buses only need to install a card reader,” he said.

Additionally, he said the cabinet committee today agreed to allocate RM48.6 million for Kuala Lumpur City Hall to build 344 new bus stops and 7,445m of covered walkways in seven areas within the next two years.