by Dato’ Syed Ahmad Idid
Every human life is important and valuable. But some are more valuable and important than others — to paraphrase Orson Welles.
Such is true in the case of the lives of those who ride motorcycles (or pedal bicycles) in Malaysia. And motorcyclists are also known to have mowed down pedestrians: those innocent walkers on the sides of roads.
I feel that they could have kept the pedestrians safe if only the motorcyclists took proper care of their use of their machines and were correctly trained in the safe use their motorcycles. And most importantly, if they do not exceed speed limits.
This is not to apportion blame only on motorcyclists. Motorists and drivers of huge vehicles and heavy trucks must also take responsibility for the havoc, injuries, and deaths they cause on the roads or off-roads.
In recent weeks, you would have learnt about deaths caused by motorists. One was a Singaporean man in a red Maserati who made an illegal U-turn and caused the unnecessary death of a local motorcyclist.
The madness on our roads goes on. Motorcyclists and motorists have been found to travel in the opposite direction as if they owned the roads. This also scares law-abiding pedestrians who expect to see traffic in one way when suddenly they are jolted by fast riders and drivers coming in the wrong direction!
A 73-year-old died with seven others injured after a Volvo XC90 rammed into a makan shop in Sitiawan near a traffic junction. The occupants of the car concerned were just 27 and 29 years old.
I just got news about a Nissan Navara driver being arrested for a suspected hit-and-run (or more appropriately HADA or Hit And Drive Away) near the Jalan Duta Toll Plaza that left a couple on their motorcycle seriously injured.
There had been countless cases where the persons detained may say that the vehicles involved were theirs but they were not the drivers at the time of the accidents. But they knew where and when the accidents occurred!
As Conan Doyle said in Scandal in Bohemia: It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. But Benjamin Disraeli, quoted in Mark Twain, said “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”. In modern times, properly balanced appropriate statistics can help us to understand the situation better.
But riders of motorbikes and drivers of cars, vans and lorries must beware of the dangers of speeding. Speed kills. It’s as simple as that.
A month or so ago, a 56-year-old drunk driver was speeding and beside him was a 20-year-old female companion. Then bang! What could have been two happy people in bed turned into two souls searching for heaven!
We must take into account road rage. It’s becoming more frequent because more riders and drivers are stressed. More are “kia su” (scared to lose in the Hokkien dialect) or try to show their “power” or for some mental duress that they may be experiencing.
These days you can watch videocam shots of motorcyclists riding abreast of a moving vehicle and shouting abuse against the drivers and even showing the non-Victory finger (you know what I mean). Then suddenly the car, van or lorry veers to the right and knocks out the motorcyclists to the side table. More often than not, the motorcyclists are left injured. Did they deserve such a recrimination?
If only. Yes, if only. If only drivers and motorcyclists are trained according to what must be the high standards required in the proper use of their vehicles.
Together they must comply with the rules of the road. And that’s the Highway Code. There used to be such codes being drilled into us a long time ago but I don’t hear much of them these days. Do you?
Among the codes is that you must not park within 30 yards of any junction. This is simply logic or common sense. If one parks within such space, one can obstruct the view of the other cyclists or motorists wishing to enter the main roads. But who cares these days? Have we shifted into the law of the jungle?
Another code concerns the responsibility of any driver or motorcyclist to gauge the speed of the other vehicle when he wishes to overtake and the distance before he rides/drives into the other lane. But we see how reckless some motorcyclists ride their machines into the front of your vehicle!
When this happens, you have to brake fast and hard! Or else the person in front may turn into breakfast for the crows!
This leads me to one Mr. Lim (not his real name) who wishes to knock down every motorcyclist he sees on the road. Thankfully, he does this only in the video games he plays.
Talking about statistics, in a country away from us, motorcyclists are 28 times more likely to die in crashes than car occupants. But do our motorcyclists know that? In that foreign country concerned, motorbikes are few at about 3.0% of registered vehicles but they suffer 14% of the traffic fatalities.
Motorcyclists in our sunny and rainy Malaysia continue to excel with a higher death score at 62.7% compared to car drivers at 20.8%. Pedestrians at 7.1% and the high and mighty lorries are the lowest 2.6%, according to the Ministry of Transport.
In 2022, the number of road accidents was around 545,000, a considerable increase over the previous year. In 2023 alone, there were approximately 600,000 road accidents, leading to 6,443 deaths or 18 each day.
Road accidents during the recent Hari Raya season totalled some 15,000 and 123 deaths. The actual number of road accidents between March 29 and April 6 was 15,246 or a 38% increase over the previous year, says Bukit Aman or the Royal Malaysian Police’s (PDRM) Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department.
PDRM mounts countless “Ops Selamat” (Safety Ops) during festive periods of heavy traffic but motorists and motor cyclists still do not heed the warnings and guidance to save their lives and lives of others.
Is this a sign that some of the fatalities have in their minds that death is what they wished for?
According to Qalif Zuhair, Universiti Putra Malaysia has created a cutting-edge traffic App from its Road Safety Research Centre under Associate Professor Dr Law Teik Hua. Established in 1992, its research is into road safety covering issues of safety of transport system and infrastructure, vehicle drivers and passengers, motorcycle riders and pillion, and bicycles.
Dr Law opined that the volume of incidents still “points to systemic road safety challenges”. What does that entail? We just have to observe and think.
One is that some road junctions where traffic lights are not clearly visible. Drivers busy on their hand-phones are on the increase and some have even killed motorists and pedestrians.
On two-lane or three-lane roads with no proper lanes dedicated for motorcyclists, there is a potential danger when they try to pass through with the hope of a safe thoroughfare. In some instances, an unlucky motorcyclist can become “penyet” (fatally squeezed) in between.
The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research had worked out that a person killed in a road accident would cost RM 1.2 million in losses; severe injury RM120,000 and light injury RM12,000 in medical costs and productivity loss.
In view of the high costs associated with road deaths and injuries and damages to vehicles and productivity, it’s high time that someone, or some department or some authority takes a serious look at how things can be improved.
Most motorcyclists and motorists may be quick to pinpoint that better roads (no potholes and uneven surfaces, and better lighting) can reduce accidents. But have they also taken a look at themselves in the mirror?
We all know too often that speed-crazy motorists will speed at all cost on our highways despite the presence of anti-speed cameras. They will dip below the speed limit when near the speed cameras and when they are far away from the detection of the detection devices, they will try to be as fast as Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris from Team McLaren F1.
There should be serious investigations into driving under the influence of alcohol and even drugs; poorly trained drivers who get their driving licences “easily” and persons with poor humanity.
It would be beneficial if some universities used their research grants to carry out studies into the Malaysian psyche when we are out on the roads.
Things like the mental state of people involved in accidents and even the colour of their vehicles. Useful statistics about the age of the riders and drivers, age of their vehicles, and even the driving school that they have been trained.
How many of us have not heard about driving schools imposing a “kaw tim” (slang for bribe in the Cantonese dialect) fee to be awarded to riding and driving licence testers to ensure a sure-fire passing rate? The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), if it wants to be thorough, will not only uncover big cans of worms here but evidence by the container loads of collusion and wrongdoing.
It’s time local universities did some useful research with the regulatory agencies to slash the rate of preventable accidents in the country.
And start with the question of integrity. Or the lack of it among many in Malaysia.