SITIAWAN: The Social Security Organisation (Socso) records an average of two fatalities daily due to accidents involving those commuting to the workplace.
Socso Operations deputy chief executive John R Marin, said the situation was alarming for last year. Out of 72,631 accidents recorded, 35,195 or 48% were accidents that involved those travelling to the workplace.
“Of the 35,195, there were 666 deaths involving those commuting to work compared to 222 deaths at the workplace,“ he said.
He said this at a press conference after officiating a road safety campaign with Socso and the police, at Kampung Acheh Industrial Area here. Also present was Perak Department of Crime Prevention and Community Security chief, SAC Mohamad Laham.
The campaign’s objective is to heighten safety awareness to especially workers while they are on the road especially in accident-prone areas.
Earlier in his speech, John said that for last year, Socso spent between RM600 million and RM800 million on work-travel accidents which was for death, disability and injuries.
He also said that a study by Socso showed that more than 52% of accidents that involved employees travelling to the workplace occurred within 5km from the destination.
“In addition, 65% of travel accidents involve young people under 40, while 80% are male workers. Unfortunately, 76.9% of accidents at the workplace involve motorcyclists and those riding pillion,“ he said.
Such accidents also occurred because of fatigue and the “rush factor” to get to work on time, he added.
“The rising rate of accidents could affect the expenses of a company as there will be a need to recruit new employees. For Socso, compensation in paying out to accident victims and the next of kin, will increase,“ he said. — Bernama
