Ops Selamat gets mixed statistics, but death toll down from last year

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 257 deaths were recorded during this year's Ops Selamat 10/2017 traffic operations in conjunction with Chinese New Year – a drop from last year's 279 fatalities.
The operation was conducted from Jan 21 till Feb 5.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Noor Rashid Ibrahim said the death toll had decreased by 7.9%.
He did however say that there were a total of 20,752 accidents recorded this year which marks a 6% increase from last year which recorded almost 1,000 fewer accidents (19,572).
The deputy IGP added that the total number of fatal accidents was 235 cases this year compared to 261 last year which was a 10% drop.
He added that police also issued a total of 140,139 summonses during the period to motorists for various offences.
Out of that number, a whopping 128,093 were for speeding, which is the highest number recorded for a single offence.
He added that a total of 3,983 summonses were also issued for running the red light, 3,557 for cutting queue, 1.522 summonses for driving on the emergency lane and 1,516 for using a mobile phone while driving.
"All these offences are related to the attitude or the civic-mindedness of road users and these are the main causes of road accidents in our country. If we can improve our attitude or civic-mindedness and work together to solve this issue, I believe we can achieve better security and safety on the road," he said during the closing ceremony of Op Selamat 10/2017 held at the Bukit Aman police headquarters today.
On patrols carried out in neighbourhoods to curb break-ins, Noor Rashid said there were a total of 748 cases recorded this year which marked a 11.6% drop from 846 last year.
He added that during this year's Op Selamat, there were no cases of house break-ins of homes where residents informed police that they would be away for the holiday period.