ALOR STAR: Concerned over the increasing number of traffic accidents in the country, the Road Transport Department (RTD) will form RTD Cadet among secondary students as part of the schools' co-curricular syllabus.
Its director-general Datuk Ismail Ahmad said the RTD Cadet will educate the students on road safety and include hands-on and outside classroom experience on road safety.
Ismail said the department had conducted a pilot project at 17 schools nationwide, involving 595 students aged between 13 and 16, and to date, the RTD Cadet received overwhelming response from the students.
“The RTD Cadet is open for 35 students only. However, we have received hundreds of applications from students who are keen to join.
"The activities will be conducted by the RTD officers,” he said at a press conference after launching the state-level RTD Day at its headquarters on Jalan Suka Menanti here today. State RTD director Amin Onn Mustapha was also present.
Ismail said he hoped the RTD Cadet would help reduce the number of traffic accidents as well as loss of lives due to accidents, especially among the young.
“A total of 477,000 accident cases were recorded with 6,915 casualties in 2013 and 480,000 accidents cases were recorded with 6,674 casualties as of last year.
“The number of accident cases are gradually increasing and the department has to come out with another solution on educating the road user by forming the RTD Cadet,” he said, adding that it was crucial to educate youngsters on road safety at an early age.