Liow: Billions in socio-economic losses due to road crashes and fatalities

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia suffered a staggering amount of socio-economic losses amounting to RM35.32 billion in the past four years due to road crashes and fatalities.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai described the amount of impact incurred as a result of road accidents and loss of lives as counter-productive to the nation's economy, "and must be addressed in order to stop the economic leakages."
"While these are substantial figures, no loss is as great as the loss of a life," he said in his speech at the launching of International Road Assessment Programme and signing ceremony between Shell Malaysia and Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) here this evening.
According to research done by the World Health Organization (WHO), road traffic injuries have been causing considerable economic losses to victims, families and to nations as a whole. These losses arise from the cost of treatment (including rehabilitation and incident investigation) as well as reduced/lost productivity.
For example, unrealised wages for those killed or disabled by their injuries, and for family members who need to take time off work (or school) to care for the injured.
Liow said, Malaysia experienced a total of RM9.14 billion in losses in 2012, RM8.91 billion in 2013, RM8.64 billion in 2014 and RM8.63 billion last year.
He also revealed that there were 489,606 cases of road crashes in Malaysia with 6,706 fatalities recorded in 2015.
"Despite the government's efforts to instill effective safety measures and inculcate good road safety practices among Malaysians, road accident and fatality rates remain alarmingly high in our country," Liow pointed out.
"Clearly, more needs to be done to prevent these statistics from worsening," he added.