PETALING JAYA: While a youth activist is advocating 13-year-olds be allowed to get a motorcycle licence, parents and road safety experts think otherwise, pointing to figures released by police.
According to the Traffic Enforcement and Investigation Department, from 2014 to 2020, a total of 1,746 children between the ages of six and 15 died due to motorcycle accidents – and the numbers are only of those riding or handling the motorcycles and not pillion riders.
Despite the grim figures, Kelantan youth activist Wan Mahussin Wan Zain said children should not be prevented from riding motorcycles, especially to school.
He said it is appropriate to lower the age limit for having a motorcycle licence to ensure the safety of children is covered by insurance.
“Teenagers need a motorcycle licence for school. The authorities can limit the use of the licence for school only.”
To make it easier for teenagers to obtain the licence, Wan Mahussin said they should be made available for free.
“The majority of children ride motorcycles without a licence due to the age requirement and financial constraints.”
He said a suggestion for students to use bicycles to school is not practical.
“With the weather now and the distance from housing areas to schools, it is not practical for them to ride bicycles,” he said, adding that dangerous road conditions are also not suitable for bicycles.
However, Wan Mahussin’s suggestion did not sit well with the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research, with its chairman Prof Dr Wong Shaw Voon saying the suggestion is not a good one at all.
“We have too many youths getting killed on the road already. The number one killer of our youths is on the road.”
Wong said cycling is much safer. “Anyone would know it is a crazy idea to allow our children to ride motorcycles as it would only get more youths killed on the road.”
Road safety activist Shahrim Tamrin also rejected Wan Mahussin’s suggestion.
“It will only result in more future leaders of the country dying young or getting permanently injured.”
Shahrim said Malaysia should instead foster a fit generation and suggested that the use of bicycles be encouraged.
“For decades, our fathers, mothers, uncles and aunts used to cycle to school and this resulted in them staying fit.”
Shahrim added that Wan Mahussin may not have realised that motorcycle use is the main cause of traffic deaths involving children and teenagers in Malaysia.
Private hospital cleaner Astrid Chong, 38, said she will never allow her 13-year-old teenager to ride a motorcycle.
“We only own two motorcycles. One is for my husband to get to work and the other is mine. But to save money, I ride pillion with my husband when I travel to work.”
Chong said her home is far from her child’s school and she cannot afford school bus fees.
“My neighbours allow my child to carpool with them and we pay a small fee to cover the petrol costs. But never have I allowed, nor will I allow my child to ride a motorcycle to school.”
Chong said the roads are too dangerous for a child on a bicycle, what more a motorcycle.
“I do not agree with the suggestion and I do not think the activist has given it much thought.”
