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Picture by FIRDOUSS ROSS / UNSPLASH[/caption]
By Ashwin Kumar
THE responsibility of keeping our roads safe lies with us, its users.
This is the advice of Selangor Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department (JSPT) Chief Superintendent Azman Shari’at in light of the Chinese New Year celebration on Jan 25.
Festive season or not, however, Azman hopes to see the number of fatal accidents reduced as a result of effective enforcement by the traffic police.
“Our KPI for this year in Selangor and our continuous goal is to lower the number of road deaths,” he told Selangor Journal recently.
Azman said while the number of unpaid road summonses is still high, focus should be on preventing accidents through education and enforcement in the state.
“We want the community to shift their focus away from fines and money and instead work on learning about road safety and changing their behaviour.
“I see a lot of incidents where people get angry easily on the road. Road users should adopt the mindset that they must be emotionally stable before starting up their car.”
Singling out road rage as a particular concern, Azman advised road users to always be wary of others.
“If someone overtakes another vehicle in an unlawful manner, don’t take matters into your own hands; let the police handle it. Road safety must be on everyone’s mind, especially during busy periods like the upcoming Chinese New Year holidays.”
The festive season is closing in, but Azman said the Selangor police has not received the official announcement from their federal counterparts on the launch of Ops Selamat.
Ops Selamat, formerly known as Ops Sikap, is a traffic operation carried out by the JSPT to ensure the safety and welfare of all road users during festive seasons.
“When the operation commences, the JSPT is prepared to be on duty to ensure road-users’ safety. Those who think they can outsmart the police must be prepared to receive their summonses in the mail two weeks later,” Azman said.
When asked about the steps taken by the JSPT to find a solution for the staggering number of road accidents in Selangor annually, he said police will be issuing on-the-spot summonses of RM300 to road users who commit any of the six major offences during the operation.
The six major offences are driving in the emergency lane, speeding, using mobile phones while driving, cutting queues, overtaking at double lines and not obeying traffic light rules.
“We will do our part in enforcing the law on the road but we need Malaysians to take road safety seriously. We want everyone to be safe and have a good Chinese New Year in their hometowns,” continued Azman.
In 2018, traffic police identified 40 roads across the country that recorded a high number of deaths and subsequently, extra enforcement was activated along these hotspots to lower the number of deaths.
The top three states with the highest number of road accidents in 2018 were Selangor with 163,078 accidents, Johor with 78,812 accidents and Kuala Lumpur with 72,284.
Keeping emotions in check
According to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia psychology expert Associate Professor Dr Rozmi Ismail, road safety should be adopted as part of our culture.
“When you pass your driving test, you do two things. One, you apply what you have learned from the driving schools and the other is that you adopt your own safety measures and etiquette while on the road each day,” Dr Rozmi said.
”The authorities are already doing their best to enforce the law but they must not seem to only focus on punishing errant drivers by setting up roadblocks and issuing summonses. That is not the right way.
“Of course, the fatality rate goes down but more focus should be given to the drivers’ attitudes and behaviour. The reality is that traffic offenders are people who have passed their driving test. They are legal license holders.”
However, when motorists have no regard for the safety of others, the number of fatalities will just keep increasing, he quipped.
“Increasing operations and deploying more traffic personnel will not curb or reduce accidents and fatalities if the road users themselves continue to misbehave.
“This perennial problem can be addressed if the motorists are not selfish when driving, follow speed limits and respect others.
“By doing so, our hope in bringing down the number of road fatalities and accidents could be met and that is the real achievement,” he said.
Dr Rozmi also highlighted that road rage has become synonymous with accidents in the country.
“The root cause of any road rage incident is the frame of mind of the driver. Life can be very complicated for some people. With the current economic situation, many of us are working two to three different jobs and when faced with a tense situation, we can be easily triggered.
“How do we contain road rage? The drivers must learn to drive properly. Identify the causes of stress, and address the situation with calmness and self-control. Tolerance is often just a catch-phrase in our multi-racial country,” he said.
This article first appeared in the Selangor Journal monthly January edition, published on January 13, 2020.
