In the last 6 years, the number of road accidents in Malaysia has been increasing to more than 500,000 accidents annually. The need to raise awareness on road safety among motorists is vital to ensure the reduction of road accidents especially during festive seasons. With this in mind, Persatuan Insurans Am Malaysia (PIAM) and Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA) jointly launched a nationwide
‘Us’ Road Safety Campaign, is aimed at shifting the mindset of motorists and inculcating safe riding and driving habits by road users.
Following two years of lockdown and cross-border restrictions, this year’s Hari Raya Aidil Fitri is expected to see 4.7 million vehicles on the roads and highways for the “balik kampung” exodus in the coming days and weeks.
The national ‘Us’ Road Safety Campaign will run from April 21 to May 31, coinciding with the festive “balik kampung” exodus, to take advantage of the opportunity to educate motorists on road safety and create awareness on the causes of road accidents. The campaign is also aimed at reminding motorists of negligent riding and driving behaviours to avoid, and the impact of high road accident fatalities on society, the economy, and the Nation as a whole.
Focusing on creating and boosting awareness on shared responsibility during the coming festive season, the Campaign introduces its slogan “Safety starts with ‘S’ but begins with ‘U’”, encouraging all Malaysians to play their part in ensuring safe practices on the roads. This Campaign seeks to target road user segments, especially car drivers, motorcyclists, Gig Economy workers as well as commercial vehicle drivers in five states with the highest accident death rates, namely Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Perak, and Penang.
According to Antony Lee, PIAM Chairman, “From the millions of expected road users during the Hari Raya exodus, it takes ONE road user to be negligent and cause a fatal road accident. Tragically, a family may lose their loved one and that would be very unfortunate”.
Echoing Antony’s sentiments, Mohamed Sabri Ramli, Deputy Chairman of MTA said, “It is up to us to make a difference. As a Nation, it is our shared responsibility to turn around the statistics, and make Road Safety a way of life. Let the ‘Us’ brand be our “voice” for road safety. Let us not be part of the statistics.”
Based on the ‘Road Traffic Negligence in Malaysia’ study conducted by Vodus for PIAM and MTA using the ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’ survey methodology, the most common road safety negligence by car drivers in the top 5 states is tailgating, which is observed by 50% of the car drivers surveyed, followed by speeding. Motorcyclists swerving between lanes is the most common negligence, which is observed by 58% of the motorcyclists. Using mobile phones while riding the bike is the highest rate for gig-economy workers such as food delivery riders, with an observation rate of 62%. In the case of heavy vehicles/bus drivers, the most common negligence involved is the failure to enforce seatbelts on passengers, which has a 52% observation rate, while speeding accounts for an observation rate of 51%.
Over the years, most road fatalities involved motorcyclists. During the PIAM-MTA 2022 Nationwide Road Safety Campaign, the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) informed that in 2020, there were a total of 4,634 fatalities due to road accidents, with 3,118 (67%) involving motorcycle accidents. This situation was believed to be partially attributed to an increase in food and other delivery services during the pandemic. There was also an alarming death count amongst young motorcyclists aged 16-30 years old totaling 11,690 deaths, which represented 45% of total motorcycle fatalities due to road accidents from 2014-2020.
As traffic levels return to normality, it is crucial to ensure that we don’t return to pre-pandemic numbers of deaths on our roads. It is said that there is one death every 84 minutes in rising road accidents.‘Us’: Road Safety Campaign’s vision is to not only create awareness on the importance of road safety, but also to positively influence and instill safe driving/riding habits and attitudes amongst road users, as well as embracing shared responsibility encouraging safety on the roads over the long run. This Campaign will highlight tips on the “Do’s and Don’ts” of road safety during the upcoming Hari Raya Aidilfitri festive season.
