SEPANG, June 15 — The Malaysian Road Safety Council (MKJR) will start a Safe School Zone pilot project at 14 schools in the country to benefit almost 20,000 pupils and staff.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the measure was taken after several recent fatal incidents involving students and statistics showing an average of 70 incidents occurring in school areas annually.
"This shows that the aspect of speed and road infrastructure management at most schools has not reached a satisfactory level,” he said in a speech before chairing the council’s 62nd annual general meeting today.
"The intervention by MKJR through the pilot project includes focusing on reducing speed limits at school areas by improving infrastructure such as pedestrian light-controlled crossings and medians.
“This requires the cooperation from all parties, especially the Education Ministry and every state’s Education Department to identify such schools, such as those that are beside or in front of federal roads,” Loke said, adding that the project would be expanded to more schools with high risks of incidents.
He also urged companies to help make the project a success by sponsoring it.
“A company could adopt five or ten schools a year. If this takes off, the project can be scaled up, meaning more schools will be protected under this initiative,” Loke said, noting that about RM300,000 was required for a school to implement the project.
Meanwhile, MKJR will lead the development of a road safety index that measures compliance and changes among road users at identified locations.
"In efforts to improve road safety intervention, the ability to make decisions based on data needs to be raised.
"All the while, the standard of achievement is focused on the number of deaths, but that is only a final indicator. We need a more dynamic approach through development of leading indicators to identify the risk levels, system vulnerabilities, and the effectiveness of continued intervention,” he said.
