Non-compliance main cause of road deaths
Published on: Thursday, May 30, 2019
By: Hayati Dzulkifli
Kota Kinabalu: Non-compliance to traffic and road safety regulations is the main contributing factor to the rise of fatal road accidents in Sabah, said State Police Commissioner Datuk Omar Mammah.He said motorists’ bad attitude on the road such as speeding as well as having no regard to the safety of other road users also contributed to increasing road fatalities.
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“Increasing operations and deploying more traffic police personnel on the roads will not curb or reduce road accidents and fatalities if the motorists and road users continue to misbehave when on the road and have no consideration for the safety of others.
“This perennial problem can be addressed if the motorists are not selfish when driving, follow the speed limit set and respect other road users.
“By doing so, our aspiration to bring down road fatalities and accident rate could be met,” he said when launching the 15th “Op Selamat” from May 29 until June 12, this year, in conjunction with the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration, at the Suria Sabah Shopping mall, on Tuesday.
The “Op Selamat”, themed “Rumah Selamat, Sampai ke Destinasi (House Safe, Reach the Destination)”, was aimed to enhance public awareness on road safety and safety of their properties when leaving for their hometowns during the festive holidays.
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A total of 220 personnel and 31 officers from the Sabah police contingent will be on duty, assisted by other branches in the police force such as marine police, police air force and crime prevention unit.
Also present were State Special Branch Police head SAC Dato Suhaimi bin Deraman, Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department head SAC Dato’ Ahmad Fadzillah bin Mohamed, State CID Chief SAC Jauteh Dikun, Sabah Police Management Department head SAC Zabidi bin MD Zain and other senior officials.
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Based on latest statistics, Omar said the police recorded 20 fatalities in the “Op Selamat” last year, with an increase of nine deaths, or equivalent to 82 per cent, compared to 11 people killed in road accidents in the “Op Selamat” 2017.
The number of road accidents has also increased to 23 cases or a three per cent increase, he said, with a total of 881 cases registered last year compared to 788 in 2017.
“Even the number of summonses issued for the ‘Op Selamat’ last year, registered at 18,016, showed a surge of 3,973 summonses compared to 14,043 in 2017.
“In addition, the most detected traffic offences throughout the operation were speeding with issuance of 7,234 summonses followed by driving on emergency lanes (overtaking the queue) for 1,790 summonses, 1,230 summonses issued for not wearing seat belts and 7,762 summons issued for various traffic offences,” he said.
To ensure the road accidents rate is dropped and smooth traffic flow, Omar said Sabah police have identified 11 black spots areas involving 333.6km Federal roads in all districts that called on motorists and road users to be wary about and be extra careful when driving on those stretches of roads.
He said police has ensured presence of police on roads including at the ‘Black Spot’ locations via patrol concept and static strategy by setting up canopies on the strategic areas as the meeting point of traffic policemen with other personnel from other enforcement agencies.
Apart from reminding motorists to ensure their safety on the roads, Omar also reminded them to take precautionary measures to ensure their houses are locked properly and inform their neighbours of their absence during the festive holidays and seek help from police to regularly patrol their residences.
“The crime index under ‘Op Selamat’ has also increased based on last year statistic that recorded 253 cases with an increase of 12 cases or 4.98 per cent in comparison to 235 cases recorded in 2017.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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