JUST last month the Transport Ministry said that Malaysia had one accident recorded every one minute in 2022 and according to a study by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), these accidents are mainly caused by ‘human behaviour.’
Malaysia has recently been on the international radar for road safety after a study by FINN showed that the country had recorded 22.48 road deaths per 100,000 people, ranking it ay third place, while Thailand took second place and Saudi Arabia was ranked first in road fatalities with 35.94 road deaths per 100,000 people in the list of countries where you are most likely to die on the road.
Meanwhile, Scandinavian countries like Iceland and Norway take up the top two spots in the list of countries where you are least likely to die on the road with Iceland having 2.05 road deaths per 100,000 people while Switzerland came in third with 2.25 road deaths per 100,000 people.
Besides that, Malaysia also came in fifth place listed as one of the countries with the most dangerous roads, having scored a 3.85/10 in the road safety test.
In the list of countries ranked from most safe to most dangerous roads, Malaysia came in 23rd place out of 27 countries in the study.
The list included other factors such as:
1. Road quality score
2. Traffic level
3. Attribution of road traffic deaths to alcohol
4. Seatbelt wearing percentage
5. Max speed limits in towns (kilometre per hour)
6. Motorway speed limit (kilometre per hour)
Four out of six factors noted that Malaysia scored 0 per cent in deaths caused by drunk driving and scored a 5.3 out of seven in the road quality score. However, the country’s traffic level amounted to 168.4 and only 48 per cent of Malaysians were recorded to have worn their seatbelts.
