Malaysia Ranks 30th Among Countries In Fatal Road Accidents

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 9 (Bernama) -- The United Nations has ranked Malaysia 30th among countries with the highest number of fatal road accidents, registering an average of 4.5 deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles.
"I am not happy with that position. We want to bring the fatality rate down by 2010," Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy told reporters after his ministry's post-Cabinet meeting Wednesday.
He said the ministry has prepared a five-year plan to reduce the rate.
Chan blamed the high road accident fatality rate on the large number of motorcycles on Malaysian roads, at 60 per cent of the total registered vehicles.
He said most fatal accidents in the country involved motorcyclists.
Chan was responding to a statement issued by Hong Kong's Department of Transport which placed Kuala Lumpur on top of 20 world cities with the highest number of fatal road accidents.
The department's statement, carried by a local Chinese daily yesterday, stated that its survey found that Kuala Lumpur registered an average of 194 deaths in road accidents per one million population.
The statement did not name the other 19 cities.
"It is misleading. The statement is very bias as we don't know what criteria they used in their survey," he added.
Chan said based on the data obtained from the Kuala Lumpur traffic police, an average of 148 deaths per one million population were recorded in 2005.
"The criteria measuring the fatality rate per one million population is not widely used as most countries adopt the formula of fatality based on per 10,000 registered vehicles," he said.