Road accidents are on the rise as travel and economic activities have resumed after the pandemic. As shared by Transport Minister Anthony Loke, a total of 915,874 road accidents were recorded throughout 2021 and 2022.


In 2022 alone, there were a total of 545,588 road accidents reported and a total of 6,080 deaths. That’s an average of 1,494 accidents per day or an accident every minute in Malaysia. When it comes to road fatalities, that’s 16.6 deaths per day or one death every 86 minutes.

That’s a significant 47% increase from 2021 which recorded a total of 370,286 accidents and 4,539 deaths on the road.

According to a study by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), the majority of road accidents were caused by human behaviour. This is followed by design, condition of the road infrastructure and vehicle’s condition.

https://soyacincau.com/2023/06/15/malaysia-...minute-in-2022/
May you all have a safe journey if you are traveling for the holiday

All these technology is a joke if people drive like sohai. And article related with australia. topkek.

most people drive like sohai nowadays due to modern technology which make them to be focused even less on the road since this so called technology can cover their mistake, out of 10 car you see in a row, you can expect half of them will be using phone while driving and can expect even more during slow traffic.

It is harder to change people, so we have no choice but to take easier route: change car (safety) tech

Only in malaysia. if our law is strict, netizen will follow. like usage of mask. nobody last time dare to come out without mask.

Do the same to those who beat the traffic law. summon them rm1000 and force them to pay in 14 days like mask. then automatic everyone will follow the traffic rules.

No need to summon many people, just summon 10 people, I think another 10 million driver will follow the rules due to scared need to pay summon

Sweden records 2.8 deaths per 100,000 people. Sweden is also ranked as having one of the safest transport systems. Pedestrians have zones which protect them from vehicles. Cyclists’ zones are separated by barriers with the main roads. A low-speed limit has been set in urban areas to curb speeding and recklessness. There are stringent laws for drunk-driving that are heavily enforced all over the country. Speed bumps and zebra crossings with aggressive lighting further protect pedestrians from accidents caused by speeding. All these factors make traffic accidents a rare occurrence in Sweden.

What can we do to reduce road crashes and deaths?
Yamin Vong
08 Apr 2024, 07:00 AM

Removing distractions while behind the wheel and improving public transport are among the ways to lessen road-related deaths.

Advanced countries like the UK usually experience a decline in traffic crashes over the years. Malaysia, however, seems to defy the convention.

Police figures show there were a total of 6,433 deaths on the road last year, the highest number ever reported, while the 598,635 crashes registered broke a new record.

Did you happen to see a viral video of a JPJ driving test, where a girl had to touch and call out the names of the parts of a car such as the headlights and rear lights?


I thought it was a fake video but upon checking, it was confirmed to be genuine.

If this is the kind of driving test that has been mandated by the road transport department, then can it be any wonder why traffic fatalities are increasing?

The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) has emphasised that human error is a significant contributing factor to traffic fatalities in Malaysia, as has the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the US.

The long-term solution is to enhance the driving test standards to ensure that drivers are adequately trained and tested on essential driving skills and knowledge.

JPJ had some years ago announced some plans about conducting driving tests in a virtual environment. Could the viral video of the girl doing her tragic-comic driving test be a travesty of that driving simulator testing previously talked about?

But which politician is willing to be unpopular and talk about making driving tests a real driving test, especially in these times where, seemingly, the tail wags the dog?

Speaking of populism, the government has made a logical decision to allocate its RM37 million toll subsidy to the two days before Hari Raya. This will stretch out the outbound traffic peak to three days, from Sunday until Tuesday midnight.

There are many other key factors that Malaysia’s citizens, civil service, corporate and other entities can tackle to reduce traffic fatalities.


Minimising the use of handphones while driving could immediately reduce the number of traffic crashes.

Distracted driving, speeding, impaired driving (such as driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs), aggressive driving, fatigue, and general failure to obey traffic laws are the immediate causes of road deaths.

We can make more efforts at inculcating a safety-first attitude. Some companies in the safety-first oil and gas industry specifically prohibit their employees from texting while driving.

Shell Malaysia was one of the first to implement this ban on its employees as part of its occupational safety and health guidelines.

Observing how there are express bus drivers who can be observed using their handphones while driving until today, I wonder if the land public transport agency (APAD) and express bus companies can work closer together and do more to protect passenger safety.

And how about e-hailing platforms like Grab, Lalamove, and Foodpanda improving the safety of their e-hailing motorcyclists through using smartphone technology to detect distracted riding?

Are the police collecting data on the use of handphones by e-hailing motorcyclists, like by catching them?

No, they are not because it’s obvious that these e-motorcyclists need their smartphones to navigate and find the addresses. And the Malaysian police are compassionate, so you can’t entirely blame them.

Perhaps Socso, the General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM) and e-hailing platform owners can pool funds to equip e-hailing riders with a Bluetooth-equipped headphone helmet.

With this connectivity to Waze or Google Maps navigation software, the riders can listen to prompts and not be distracted by looking at the phone. They should observe the traffic and ride defensively.

In that scenario, the police will find the moral strength to enforce the law on distracted riding and people won’t complain that police are not enforcing the law on e-hailing riders.

Since we see that almost 65% of the traffic fatalities are motorcyclists and the youth, then the relevant ministries should organise their stakeholders like schools, companies with many employees, community organisations, social media outlets including key opinion leaders to disseminate road safety messages effectively.

Are we doing enough to invest in traffic calming measures and upgrading high-risk road sections?

Prominently positioned speed cameras are very useful to convince road users to observe the speed limit.

One of the theories towards reducing traffic fatalities is about using public transport. The transport ministry is generous with permitting more express bus services during peak holidays like the approaching Hari Raya Puasa.

But why can’t another government entity, KTM, double or triple the services to the north during peak seasons?

The action plan for road safety is for employers to play a bigger role to complement government efforts.

“This is because there is more of a bond between employers and employees than anonymous government agencies,” says Professor Kulanthayan KC Mani, head of Universiti Putra Malaysia’s department of community health and the chair of a global alliance of road safety NGOs.

What should employers aim for regarding a road safety culture in their environment?

The writer can be contacted at yamin.vong@gmail.com