Rosli Azad Khan said 16-year-olds were too young to ride motorcycles and called for the immediate cancellation of “this regressive policy”.

He told FMT the government should encourage an increase in the number of school buses instead.

“This would be safer for schoolchildren,” he said.

He was commenting on the latest statistics released by the Bukit Aman traffic enforcement investigation department, which showed that 25,958 deaths involving motorcyclists and pillion riders were recorded in the country from 2014 to 2020.

Another consultant, Goh Bok Yen, said the number of deaths would continue to rise as long as the government did not segregate and restrict motorcycle riders to dedicated lanes.

He said the statistics showed that an average of 10 motorcyclists were killed every day and four of them were between the ages of 16 and 25.

“Today, it is not an offence for motorcyclists to occupy all lanes in urban and rural highways, regardless of the speed at which cars are travelling,” he said.

“It is time to go back to the fundamentals of segregating road space and make it an offence for riders to encroach onto the main lane.”

Goh said heavier penalties should be imposed on repeat offenders, adding that the use of modern technology was the only viable approach to dealing with the problem.

Rosli said the education system in Malaysia had not been effective in instilling road safety consciousness.

“Road accidents can be avoided if the riders don’t breach regulations, don’t speed unnecessarily, don’t race among themselves and don’t ride their bikes in a reckless manner,” he said.

“In many countries, proper riding gear such as padded trousers, jackets and riding boots are compulsory for riders. However, in Malaysia, this is not taken seriously.”

He called for tougher police enforcement, saying that revoking young riders’ licences or remanding them temporarily should be an option if they broke the law.