A series of grisly traffic crashes have taken place in recent months, including one involving street racing motorcyclists killed after hitting a car.
A clip of the accident, recorded on the smartphones of the street racing fans, went viral. The message of rash motorcycling and premature death should be now on everyone’s smartphones.
The transport ministry should consult a social media marketing company to use this platform to engage with the target market about travelling safely on land and provide details of enforcement events.
Coincidentally, I was invited to join a group of thought leaders to comment on road safety perceptions in Malaysia, the role of technology versus soft skills such as driving skills, and whether safety features are valued by car buyers.
It’s understood that this market research was sponsored by a Japanese company.
Two of us in the group agreed that soft skills such as driver’s attitude and driving capability were more important than technology, including anti-lock braking systems, on a fundamental level of car active safety.
Yet, police data show otherwise. Over a span of nine years from 2011, traffic crashes were on the uptrend while fatalities were on the downtrend.
I asked Malaysia Road Research Institute chairman Prof Wong Shaw Voon to comment on that and also on the recent announcement by transport minister Wee Ka Siong that he would ensure that ABS be made mandatory on all new motorcycles in Malaysia.
Wong is one of the most engaged road safety advocates that I’ve met.
He confirmed that the police data was indeed credible and that the tables were collated and published by the transport ministry:
According to data, the number of accidents surged to 567,516 in 2019 from 414,421 in 2010. However, in terms of fatalities, 6,284 deaths were registered in 2019, compared to 6,782 reported in 2010.
He explained the rationale for making ABS mandatory for motorcycles, quoting the mandatory requirement of seatbelts and airbags in cars, and the process of the safety benchmarking by the New Car Assessment Programme (the NCAP for Asean).
He dismissed my argument that the compulsory installation of ABS would add to the cost of the motorcycle and be a further burden on blue collar workers who depended on this most economical, though most dangerous, mode of transport.
“ABS, for instance – is a proven and widely-available technology but it takes time to implement when it involves the public. We can’t implement it immediately. A two-year implementation period is what we think the manufacturers need to develop the supply chain for the local assembly motorcycle industry. At the current motorcycle population, it will take 10 years to implement fully.”
I asked his opinion if Malaysia would be able to halve the number of fatalities on the road by 2030, a shared target under a United Nations road safety programme for the decade.
Wong said that it would be a challenging task and Malaysia can do it.
“Everybody must work together, including companies. Even as an online company, you use road transport to deliver material. How do you plan your logistics to reduce the number of crashes?’
“The involvement of corporations is important because 70% of death claims on Socso arise from commuting to work and or for work purposes.
“As a company, how can you encourage your workers to use the bus which is the safest of all land transport next to rail?
“Companies give car allowances and toll allowances, yet some of the recipients will claim that benefit but ride a motorcycle to work. In Europe and the US, there are companies giving special allowances to those who live near to companies and use buses or bicycles to work.
“Then what about C-suite executives who have chauffeurs who are required to work abnormally long hours. What about companies and institutions which require employees who work long hours: do these companies help out by providing transport home for people such as doctors and nurses and site workmen?
“Why can’t we cycle to schools as before, why do parents allow their kids to ride motorcycles to school. Because we’re getting more affluent. But bicycles have a slower speed and are safer than motorcycles.”
Now that we have a more enlightened view of technology, can we resolve to treat safety on the road as we drive as religiously as we care for our loved ones?
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.