Sabah students may benefit first
Published on: Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Road Transport Department is planning special arrangements to make driving licences affordable to students and which may be extended nationwide if successful. It noted that nearly 50 per cent of students riding or driving to school do not have a licence. "At 16, students can apply for the B2 (motorcycle) licence and at 17, they can apply for the D (car) licence, but several factors prevent them from applying for a licence, among them being the price," said its Director Datuk Suhaili Mohd Taufek.
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"We are working with the Road Safety Department and the Persatuan Institut Memandu Sabah, focusing on schools."Through this cooperation, we try to make it easier for them to obtain a licence. I submitted the working paper to our headquarters two weeks ago. "I hope it will be accepted because it benefits the people, especially students. To give free is not possible, so we give a discount," he said. "We want to make this special arrangement for Sabah and if it is good, it be can be extended to others across the nation," he said, during a school adoption programme organised by the Road Safety Department at SMK Sanzac in Sembulan, Monday.
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The programme was officiated by Director-General Dato Rosli Isa who pointed out that almost 60 per cent of the 11,800 road accidents in Sabah last year involved motorcycles. The department also recorded 338 fatal accidents, 394 involving serious injuries and 325 involving minor injuries last year.
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"We are planning stronger cooperation between the Road Safety Department in Sabah, with the Road Safety Department headquarters and the State Government to conduct road safety campaigns and advocacy extensively in Sabah. "This is important particularly with Sabah's rapid development and construction of more roads including the Pan Borneo Highway," he said, adding that collaboration also involved the police and the Road Transport Department. He said they will also be getting in touch with Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman to get more cooperation to conduct bigger programmes to ensure more road safety campaigns can be held in all districts Statewide. "We hope the Federal and State Government will work together in this, because more and more young people are getting involved in road accidents, whereby 80 per cent are caused by motorist's attitudes," he said. He also talked about the new road safety education module which they plan to introduce at all primary schools in 2019, and in 2020 for all secondary schools. Also present was Sabah Education Department head of human development sector Datu Jamigul Datu Salin who represented State Education Department Director Datuk Maimunah Suhaibul. He welcomed the initiatives taken by the Road Safety Department and also proposed for every school to have a designated drop off and pick up point for students. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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