DECEMBER 30 — Recently there have been several fatal accidents involving heavy vehicles.
The latest was on December 23 in which seven people were killed and 33 others injured in a collision involving five vehicles at KM204 of the northbound North-South Expressway (NSE) near the Ayer Keroh rest and service area.
There has been an increasing trend of deaths in heavy vehicle accidents. The recorded deaths in 2021 were 230, 2022, 232 deaths, 2023, 235 deaths and 2024 up to now, 260 deaths. Something is not right.
The Road Transport Department (JPJ) intends to conduct a nationwide special operation called Ops Gempur Teknikal in their enforcement ahead of the balik kampung rush during Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri to ensure compliance with traffic regulations. JPJ must be congratulated for this effort.
However, such enforcement should not be carried out during festive seasons as heavy vehicles are banned on the road during festive seasons. JPJ should have such enforcement on a regular basis instead.
It is common knowledge that the Malaysian transport sector is riddled with corruption. Commercial vehicles are required to go through regular inspection at least once every six months at Puspakom, and whenever there are accidents.
However, many errant lorry and heavy vehicle operators are using borrowed tyres to pass the Puspakom inspection and then changing back to their old tyres after getting certification.
There should be a system where the vehicle tyres are marked during the inspection and the vehicle is required to be at Puspakom a month later to verify the tyres were those during inspections.
Currently the authorities only react when something grave happens and not constant enforcement. Time and time again, we have seen that after major road tragedies, calls for inquiries are made and yet we see little or no improvement.
Current strategies by the transport ministry have little effect on the mindset of the transport operators. They would continue to neglect vehicle maintenance and driver training. These do not bode well for the innocent public. The transport operator and its company must also be made liable should any vehicle in its fleet cause fatality.
In the Malaysian Occupational Safety and Health Department (DOSH), death in the workplace would result in a penalty of RM500,000 or jail terms. Such a penalty should be imposed on transport operators if their fleet causes death to innocent public.
To reduce the death toll by heavy vehicles, serious reform is required for the transport ministry as well as the transport sector.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
