ROAD safety activists who closely followed the Finance Minister’s Budget 2023 presentation last week in Parliament must have been utterly disappointed once again when nothing was set aside for the nation to begin reining in the terribly high motorcycle-related death toll.
For the longest time, this has been Malaysia’s No.1 road safety concern for which activists have been calling for political will by the powers that be to initiate a game-changing masterplan towards saving thousands of lives lost on our roads and highways.
It is also truly the biggest cause of deaths, especially among young Malaysians between the age of 16 and 39, and in totality year in and year out, motorcycle crashes have taken more lives than the Covid-19 pandemic or other pandemics have snuffed out.
How much longer must the nation wait or how many more lives must be lost before some effective plans are rolled out to mitigate such preventable deaths?
Though some might say it is not an apple-to-apple comparison, our transport ministers over the years would not fail to quickly announce to the media that a board of inquiry would be set up every time there was a crash involving a light aircraft, for instance.
But hardly anyone outside the realm of the road safety fraternity and, of course, family members of victims of the daily fatal motorcycle crashes, are mourning the wanton loss of lives and waiting for an end to the low priority or no priority at all given to tackling this critical issue.
Promoting a safer motorcycle riding culture is actually a no-brainer.
To begin with, we need to roll out motorcycle-only lanes, with priority along busy traffic arteries such as federal roads.
The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) has identified at least 101 stretches of federal roads that should have dedicated motorcycle lanes, which Miros has said could potentially save up to 1,000 lives each year.
Via this column, I have consistently advocated for motorcyclists to be allowed to only ride on the existing left lanes instead of riding at their whims and fancies by weaving in and out, competing for space with cars and other heavy vehicles.
And while waiting for motorcycle-only lanes to hopefully become a reality – such as the most classic one along the Federal Highway in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor – riders should be allowed to use the emergency lanes along the highways in single-file riding (to avoid crashes and save lives) because these lanes are unused most of the time.
The number of motorcyclists using the safe left lanes is extremely low while the Malaysian motorcycling culture is very much one of speeding without regard to personal safety.
It is when they ride in fast lanes between inches of cars and other vehicles that so many get killed or sustain serious injuries, either for years or even lifelong.
The social and financial costs and implications of such high death tolls are actually beyond imagination unless they are close family members.
These are particularly painful for wives and children who have lost husbands and fathers in daily crashes.
Imagine, too, seeing their loved ones and breadwinners as well suffering from prolonged injuries.
Even if they survive, the incidental costs are staggering, especially for those from the B40 group who make up the majority of motorcyclists.
Meanwhile, another factor that has exacerbated the already phenomenally high fatalities involving the two-wheelers is the growing popularity of food delivery services, where the rush to reach their destinations to make more deliveries has led to a rise in crashes.
This gig economy is a fairly new phenomenon that wasn’t there a few years ago, but now they are sprouting like mushrooms all over the place.
Our statistics on motorcyclist deaths are indeed gory, to say the least, which makes me quite reluctant to share that info here lest someone reading might have sleepless nights.
But to drive home the message once again and prick the conscience of all stakeholders, especially the motorcyclists themselves, I need to do so.
By coincidence, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has just released a report expressing grave concerns about fatalities among motorcyclists in Southeast Asia.
The region has the highest number of two-wheelers, with Malaysia fast replacing Thailand for having the world’s, repeat the world’s worst death rate for motorcycle users.
This record is certainly not something the government especially should just let be or remain in some annual report but is truly one that ought to be placed on our national agenda once the 15th general election is over in the next month or so.
According to WHO data, a total of 89,953 people have died on Malaysia’s roads for the 20 years between 2001 and 2021, and 70% comprised motorcyclists.
The Social Security Organisation is yet another entity directly on the receiving end of Malaysia’s “motorcycle tragedy”.
It is paying out hundreds of millions annually in compensation to families of employees for commuting crashes involving all road users to and from workplaces.
It was reported that in 2019 alone, the payout amounted to RM729.1 million while in 2020, apparently due to reduced road crashes during the Covid-19 pandemic, the amount came down to RM595.7 million.
Out of the total payout, the amount that went into commuting crashes involving motorcyclists totalled RM561.4 million in 2019 and RM458.7 million in 2020.
These are indeed scary statistics that could be described as a financial pandemic and could be saved if effective measures such as separate motorcycle lanes are in place to boost sanity and safety on our roads.
Datuk Suret Singh, who used to be the director-general of the Road Safety Department and ended his term as chairman of Miros in February, has been a leading road safety advocate.
When I texted him that I wanted to push the envelope further, so to speak, to arouse everyone’s conscience on motorcyclist deaths, he had this to say: “Unless there is the political will to implement Miros’ proposal on motorcycle lanes along the federal and state roads, the carnage will continue daily unabated. The government must regard it as a great investment in saving the lives of our young B40 group riders of smaller bikes”. Thank you, Datuk for your words of wisdom.
Let us place some hope on this “Saving Lives Matter” issue when the new Federal government comes in soon.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
