Azlan Sani Zawawi, leader of the biker group Ikatan Silaturrahim Brotherhood, said such a manoeuvre and others like it could mark them as suspects of serious crimes in police eyes.
“The police could suspect you of trying to escape arrest for having committed dangerous crimes and may even shoot at you to try to stop you from running away,” he said in an interview with FMT.
Motorcycle lanes in Malaysia are one-way lanes and Azlan said riding in the opposite direction was dangerous not only to the ones making the U-turns but to other motorcyclists as well.
“It’s a stupid move made by short-minded people, and it’s extremely dangerous to all of us.”
He pointed out that the largest fine a motorcyclist would have to pay for any traffic offence was RM300 under the 1987 Road Transport Act.
“Face the roadblock like a man because paying RM300 is still better than paying with your life or someone else’s,” he said.
According to police statistics, out of the 7,152 people who died in road accidents in 2016, nearly 63% were motorcyclists.
Several police officers have been killed or injured by motorcyclists attempting to escape roadblocks.
The most recently reported case happened in Jan 2017, when a 17-year-old knocked down a policeman with his motorcycle at a roadblock in George Town.
In September 2015, during an operation against errant motorcyclists, another teenager ran over a traffic policewoman who subsequently died from the injuries she sustained.