Materia Medica Malaysiana

Five-year plan to halve death rate on roads

A five-year plan will get under way soon to reduce the death rate in road accidents by more than half through better signs, lighting and road design.
To take off by the middle of the year, the "rehabilitation programme" will see the newly-set up Road Safety Department identifying and rectifying such problems along major highways and roads nationwide.
"If the area has poor lighting, then we will brighten it. If signage is wanting, we will improve it. And if the design is poor, we will rectify it," its director-general Suret Singh said in a interview.
He said the department would identify corrective measures to be carried out and forward its proposals to the relevant authorities for implementation.
Suret said initial investigations had showed that poor signs, lighting and road design had contributed to the high accident death rate.
While agreeing that the remedial cost will be immense, he said the department would prioritise measures to be carried out.
"We will do so by looking at the number of deaths in specific areas and the urgency for corrective measures to be taken," he said.
The department hopes to reduce the current accident rate of 4.5 deaths per 10,000 cars to two deaths per 10,000 by 2010.
"This will take us to the level of the United States, United Kingdom and Japan," he added.
Suret said the department planned to reduce the number of accident-prone areas from the current 200 nationwide to a more acceptable figure.