KUALA LUMPUR: Newly promoted Traffic Investigation and Enforcement (JSPT) chief Deputy Commissioner Datuk Azisman Alias wants the focus to be more on deterrent measures to ensure safer roads in the country.
Azisman, whose appointment to Deputy Commissioner will be official on Feb 11, said the department plans to upgrade police vehicles and equipment as part of the overall measures to deter more traffic deaths.
“Enforcement road laws have been proven as working. The number of road deaths has considerably gone down and we want to bring that number even lower.
“One of my plans for 2019 is to request an upgrade for police vehicles such as motorcycles, 4WD vehicles, and camera equipment to further enhance our enforcement work to prevent road deaths,” he said.
Azisman shared the positive trend that his department is seeing in terms of lower road deaths through effective enforcement by the traffic police.
“The number of road deaths from 2017 to 2018 dropped from 6,265 to 5,870. This is about a 6.3 per cent decrease which is considerable but I can assure you that we are not resting on our laurels.
“Our KPI for this year and our ongoing goal is to lower down the number of road deaths,” he said.
Azisman also pointed out that while the numbers of unpaid road summonses are still high, he believes the focus should be more on preventing accidents through educating and enforcement.
“Yes the numbers of unpaid summons are high. Last year alone the amount of summonses is about RM5 million with only 25 per cent were settled, however, most of that comes from speeding and wrongful parking.
“But when we focus on the fines, the focus from society will be just on the monetary instead of people actually learning and changing their behaviour about road safety. Going from home to home was also not effective in changing road behaviours,” he said.
Azisman said the traffic police have identified 40 roads across the country that recorded a high number of deaths and extra enforcement will be activated on these hotspots to lower the number of deaths.
“The top three states with the highest number of road accidents last year are Selangor with 163,078 accidents, Johor with 78,812 accidents and Kuala Lumpur with 72,284.
“These figures are also because the three states have the highest numbers of vehicles on the roads,” he said, adding that in 2018, motorcycles are still the top vehicle involved in accidents with 4,128 deaths. The lowest number of vehicle deaths is busses with only 39 deaths.
“The high number of motorcycles involved in accidents is further proof that we still need to educate more than focusing on fines.
“Since motorcycles are such fragile vehicle compared to buses and lorries, riders need to be extra careful and watch their speed,” he said.
What surprised him the most is that the major cause of accident is skidding vehicles with 2,110 accidents last year and 2,141 in 2017.
The second major cause of accident is due to the inability to see objects in front or at the side of the vehicles with 668 accidents last year and 616 in 2017.
“From these statistics alone we can see how educating drivers on road skills are important,” he said.
He hopes with the coming Chinese New Year celebration, road users should be mindful of road safety as well as vehicle safety.
“We will do our part in enforcing the law on the road but we need Malaysians to take road safety seriously. We want everyone to be safe and have good Chinese New Year celebrations in their hometowns,” he said.