KOTA KINABALU: Police in the state recorded 693 road accidents, including 22 deaths, during the Ops Sikap 24 from Aug 23 to Sept 6 in conjunction with the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations.
State Commissioner of Police Datuk Hamza Taib yesterday said the road fatalities during the traffic operation this year represented a drop from the 27 recorded last year.
“ Although there was a decrease of 18.5 percent or five deaths, I strongly urged road users to adhere to the traffic rules to avoid any unwanted incident,” he said.
Hamza said 13,465 summonses were issued by police for various offences during the just concluded operation this year, which were almost double the 7,136 summonses issued last year.
Among the offences were driving without license, speeding, beating red light, driving on emergency lane, jumping queues and causing road accident, he said.
Meanwhile, police in Lahad Datu recorded 41 road accidents, including two that claimed the lives of six persons, during the 24th Ops Sikap from August 23 to Sept 6.
Revealing this yesterday, district police chief Superintendent Shamsudin Mat said six of the accidents occurred at the target Ops Sikap areas.
These are the stretches from Km 10 to Km 24 Lahad Datu-Sandakan road, Km 17 to Km 28 Lahad Datu-Tawau road, and Km 13 to Km 23 Lahad Datu-Tungku road.
The police also issued 769 traffic summonses amounting to RM44,540, he said.
Shamsudin said the statistics indicated some improvement in the traffic situation during the duration of the road safety operation this year compared to last year.
He said this was also a result of the cooperation from other agencies such as the General Operations Force, Civil Defence Department and the Rela who helped the police in monitoring and regulating the traffic flow during the period.