Another wake up call for road safety

Malaysian transport authorities received another wake up call in the form of an express bus accident on Sunday. This is a clear indication such tragedies will continue unless serious measures are put into place without further delays and flip-flops.

As reported by the victims, the bus driver was speeding. This shows that bus drivers will continue to flout the law as long as nothing concrete is done. What happened to the plan to install speed limiting devices on express buses. The Malaysian Public has been waiting since 2007 for the enforcement of the Safety Health and Environment Code of Practice (SHE COP) for proper management of commercial vehicle drivers. Why did the authorities take so much time over it?

Recent media reports have highlighted the fact that Malaysia holds the highest record for road deaths. All the talk about Operation Sikap does not make sense and is only a complete waste of public money while important policies and bills on road safety are with held by parliament for no clear reasons. Even the Automated Enforcement System (AES) has been talked about since 2002 and is still on hold. Why this delay?

CAP strongly condemns the needless delays by the authorities in implementing necessary measures. The authorities should stop pandering to the demands of transport companies and instead focus on saving lives. We don’t need another wake up call.

Letter to the Editor, 11 October 2010