Road safety activist calls for DUI victim compensation fund

 Shahrim Tamrin says that by ring-fencing 30% of all fines collected from such cases, immediate financial support can be extended to families who have lost their breadwinners.

In the incident in Klang, a motorcyclist was killed after being rammed by a car driven by a man in his 20s who was allegedly under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

PETALING JAYA:

 Road safety activist Shahrim Tamrin has urged the government to set up a compensation fund for victims, following a fatal crash in Klang involving a driver allegedly under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

He suggested that by ring-fencing 30% of all fines collected from such cases, immediate financial support could be extended to families who had lost their breadwinners.

Shahrim also urged the government to lower the legal blood alcohol limit for drivers from 80mg to 50mg, in line with global standards, and to enforce a “zero-tolerance” limit of 20mg for new and commercial drivers.

“If one fails a breathalyser test, his or her licence should be suspended on the spot – administrative suspension before you even get to court,” he said in a statement.

“We must move toward Vision Zero – a future where zero Malaysians die because someone decided to drive while impaired. This includes mandating driver-monitoring technology in cars and creating fast-track ‘DUI courts’ to settle cases in 60 days, not years,” he added.

Transport minister Loke Siew Fook yesterday said his ministry was proposing amendments to the Road Transport Act 1987 to compel offenders to pay compensation to victims’ families, following the fatal crash in Klang.

In the incident which occurred on Sunday, a motorcyclist was killed after being rammed by a car driven by a man in his 20s who was allegedly under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The suspect has been remanded until Thursday.

Shahrim, in his proposed DUI Road Safety Plan 2026-2035, said the compensation fund could be established under the transport ministry and administered by a tripartite board comprising representatives from the transport ministry, health ministry, and civil society organisations.

He said that besides a 30% statutory ring-fencing of DUI court fines, other revenue streams – including a 0.5% alcohol import duty surcharge, a voluntary or mandated hospitality industry levy of RM200 per liquor licence, and ignition interlock device programme administrative fees – could generate up to RM24 million annually.

He suggested that victims or next-of-kin in DUI crashes not adequately covered by the Social Security Organisation, insurance, or civil damages within two years of the incident be eligible to seek compensation from the fund.

He also said that New Zealand’s Accident Compensation Corporation model could be adapted and scaled to suit Malaysia’s legal and enforcement framework.

Other recommendations

Shahrim’s other recommendations under the plan included establishing a national DUI offender registry and integrating crash data with public hospital and medical records as well as road transport department licence data into a unified impaired driving analytics platform (IDAP).

He said the IDAP, which could be managed by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research, could be used to generate monthly DUI hotspot maps, recidivism rates, and enforcement effectiveness metrics, published quarterly as open data. - FMT