PETALING JAYA: Enforcing speed limits can protect road users in urban and residential areas that have high numbers of pedestrians, said a road safety expert.
According to the World Health Organisation, road crashes were the sixth highest cause of death in Malaysia in 2020, accounting for 7,181 fatalities.
Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah said speed increases the severity of crashes, whether it is car-to-car or car-to-vulnerable road users such as children and pedestrians.
“Speed kills. That’s a fact. So, we need to protect vulnerable road users, especially in school zones and residential areas. In a liveable city, pedestrians should be the main road users. That is the philosophy and the argument,” he told theSun.
Ahmad Farhan, who is also a professor of Transport Engineering at Universiti Sains Malaysia, said 30kph is the speed that should be maintained in residential areas.
“Road crashes are avoidable. The 30kph speed limit was derived from the threshold speed that would only injure a pedestrian upon impact, with high likelihood of survival.
“So, it’s good that every vehicle does not exceed 30kph in (areas with lots of pedestrians). This can help to create a safe zone for pedestrians to walk around without getting into road crashes.”
He said changing the mindsets of drivers who speed, and having the will to implement speed limits, are some of the hurdles (that need to be) overcome to protect vulnerable road users.
On March 25, theSun spoke to Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) chairman Prof Dr Wong Shaw Voon on the rationale behind enforcing the 30kph speed limit in specific areas, and he said the possibility of a person being seriously injured when hit by a vehicle at 30kph is only about 5%.
“It is very rare for drivers to intentionally hit or kill someone on the road. Most of us would never do that. However, since we are only human, mistakes happen. But when such incidents occur, should innocent parties be killed in the process? Certainly not, especially when it is preventable.”
In order to lower the number of road fatalities, Malaysia joined the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in 2020, where ministers from 80 countries pledged to reduce road fatalities by 2030, including enforcing a 30kph speed limit in urban areas.
On March 20, then deputy federal territories minister Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias said the proposal to lower the speed limit of vehicles from 50kph to 30kph in several areas in the city centre would be presented to Kuala Lumpur City Hall the following month.
“Data collection and analyses will be carried out. The areas involved in the Miros study will be those with current speed limits of 60kph and 40kph.”
On July 30, former transport minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said at the United Nations high-level meeting in New York, that Malaysia hopes to achieve a 50% reduction in road fatalities by 2030.
