MALAYSIA has just gone through an unprecedented massive exercise involving hundreds of billions of ringgit in expenditure to flatten the curve in the battle against the devastating Covid-19 pandemic.
It was undoubtedly the most successful ever “business” the nation has undertaken as potentially millions of lives were saved thanks to the highly efficient manner in which the vaccine roll-out was managed across the length and breadth of our motherland.
And no words of thanks and gratitude would do enough justice and appreciation to the leadership of the Health Ministry and to the thousands of its ground staff, especially the frontliners, for their sacrifices and stellar service.
It just goes to show that prevention is the key to averting or mitigating whatever crisis or disaster that may come our way, be it on the health front, killer hillslope landslides or floods, as is regularly happening, and other man-made tragedies.
Our nation has indeed paid a very steep price in cases where prevention is lax or lacking and worse if there’s none at all.
The most classic example is on the motorcycling front.
According to official statistics, since the introduction of the small engine or Kapcai motorcycles in the country decades ago, about 90,000 motorcyclists have been killed on our roads up until August 2021.
If we add the statistics of injuries, including those permanently physically disabled, we just can not imagine the socio-economic impact or damage, apart from unnecessarily losing mostly young Malaysians aged between 16 and 39.
Somehow either intentionally or otherwise, the phenomenally high death and injury toll related to motorcycles has hardly pricked the conscience of politicians, religious preachers or social activists who are more concerned or conscious about matters that have nothing to do with the loss of lives.
As far as I can recall as a veteran journalist, Transport Ministers past and present hardly spoke about what could or should be done to rein in our motorcyclists in order to execute plans that would result in a safer motorcycling culture in this country, where motorcycles outnumber other forms of transport.
And they, too, are the most vulnerable in terms of losing lives among all road users, accounting for 70 out of every 100 road deaths.
One might ask why politicians, MPs and State Assemblies shy away from discussing the sorry state or fate of motorcyclists.
Is it because motorcyclists by their sheer numbers are a big vote bank and they fear that their votes would not go to the government of the day if stricter rules are imposed on their bad habits, which are the main cause of road crashes?
Let’s hope this is not the reason for political will being the missing factor here that continues to see motorcycle crashes being the number one cause of deaths and injuries among young Malaysians in their prime.
If we think of nothing about spending money preventing the once mounting death toll from the recent pandemic, let us not be stingy about doing something concrete and effective to start saving as many motorcyclists’ lives as possible.
Certainly, it’s not an apple-to-apple comparison here but lives are lives whatever the circumstances.
Isn’t saving lives the noblest thing to do?
In this regard, let’s give credit where it’s due.
I must mention that the designated motorcycle lanes straddling both sides of the Federal Highway from Petaling Jaya to Shah Alam and Klang are the best life-saving project ever undertaken by the government.
Because Selangor is the country’s most populous state and the highway links densely populated Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam and Klang, the Federal Highway is the country’s busiest freeway with round-the-clock traffic and perhaps one of the world’s busiest, too.
It is not far-fetched to say that due to the separate lanes, thousands of motorcyclist lives have been saved all these years.
Conversely, thousands would have perished without these lanes.
The highest tribute goes to the planners and executors of these dual lanes.
Because there are hundreds of roads and highways in the country and motorcycles are ubiquitous, it perhaps is not feasible to lay out separate motorcycle lanes everywhere but I’m not advocating this.
To begin with, the Works Ministry and the local authorities can turn the existing emergency lanes to be shared with motorcyclists as well. The rationale is that these lanes as we all can see are hardly used 99.9% of the time.
To make this workable, double lines can be painted to confine motorcyclists to such lanes only while breaking their bad habits of weaving themselves in between cars and other heavy vehicles on the main lanes, where most of the fatal crashes happened.
It is not rocket science and such a double-line rollout can almost be done like a pro bono exercise.
Reining in on motorcyclists’ speeding culture means the authorities must enforce traffic regulations and put an end slowly but surely to them riding without any regard for safety.
At least this is what we see daily among most of them.
Prominent road safety expert Prof Dr Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah said it is urgent to end the current poor traffic enforcement where motorcyclists ride at their whims and fancies.
“Unlicensed motorcyclists in the country learn bad habits since childhood when parents allow them to ride their machines around their housing estates and villages. Even enforcement officers look smilingly when they see children riding. The fact that no action is taken emboldens them to act as they wish,” he told theSun.
“The bad habits they pick up as children and teenagers translate to bad road manners and attitudes, which is why so many die on our roads,” he said.
He added that enforcement officers can use the latest technology by making motorcyclists aware that they can swoop on them at any place and time.
Chris Syer, a British Army veteran and former member of the Road Safety Council who has been a permanent resident here for over 60 years, said Malaysian motorcyclists are gung-ho and seem to be in a hurry all the time.
“They not only put their lives at risk but also those of other road users each time they ignore traffic laws. It is better to be late than to be dead on time,” he said while adding that it is important for the authorities to crack down on those breaking traffic laws by vigorously enforcing them.
This column alone over the years has focused on calling out the authorities and stakeholders to carry out preventive measures to save motorcyclists’ lives but nothing gets done.
Deep in my heart, I feel that only our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim can kick-start the political will to save thousands of young Malaysians from dying in motorcycle crashes.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
