KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — The police have agreed to release daily fatal traffic accident statistic in light of the high death rate in the country, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said.

The decision was made in a meeting today by the Cabinet committee on road safety and traffic congestion.

"The numbers were going down, but they went up again after the Covid-19 pandemic period.

"So just like how the Health Ministry had during the Covid-19 pandemic period released daily updates on the death toll, the police will do the same for deaths caused by road accidents,” Loke told a press conference here at the Parliament building today.

According to Loke, road accidents ranked fourth highest as a leading cause of death in the country with 6,443 fatalities a year.

"If you prorate that, that is 18 deaths a day, and one death every 80 minutes.

"And out of the road accident deaths, 4,880 were contributed by motorcycle accidents, which is two-thirds of the total death toll caused by road accidents,” he said.

He also stressed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had ranked Malaysia 126 out of 175 countries when it came to deaths by road accidents.

"Although this is per 100,000 people, the rank is still very bad,” Loke said.

With the daily updates from the police, Loke said this would hopefully draw the public’s attention to the seriousness of the matter and would change their mindset on the road.

"This is as serious as deaths caused by Covid-19. People must take this as serious as those who died during the pandemic from the virus,” he said.