KOTA KINABALU: It is not against the law for drivers to be talking on their phone, as long as they are doing it hands-free said Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.
He however stressed even then, it still posed a great danger to all road users.
Lee was responding to a 2016 study by Miros of which 185 out of 300 respondents from Klang Valley admitted that they had made or received calls during driving.
“According to Section 17A of the Road Transport Act, it is an offence to use or attempt to use mobile phone while driving unless an instrument is used that a driver does not have to hold the device.
“In short, it is legal for someone to use phone on hands-free mode while driving,” Lee said, after the launching of the two-day fifth Borneo Occupational Safety and Health Conference and Exhibition (BOSH 2017) here.
However, he added the Miros advised motorists to avoid using mobile phones at all cost while driving as it will cause distraction.
Lee, who is also National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health chairman, said the Social Security Organisation’s (SOCSO) reported 31,314 commuting accidents involving workers nationwide last year.
“We have to put serious attention on the incidents as it is recorded 20 people die on the road every day.
“More than 68 per cent of the death involved motorcyclists,” he said.
Lee had said in an earlier report that there are three main factors which contributed to road accidents, namely vehicle, road engineering and human factor.
“We can change the human factor by changing our attitude while driving,” he was quoted as saying.