Ariffin (right) sticking a sticker to a motorcycle during the Road Safety Campaign yesterday.
SANDAKAN: The number of deaths from road accidents in Sabah dropped to 379 in 2016 from 392 in the previous year, said Road Safety Department (RSD) director general Datuk Ariffin bin Che Mat.
He said the drop in fatalities was a good sign of improvement in terms of road safety issue.
He said the number should gradually decrease in the future in order to make Malaysia on par with developed nations in terms of road safety by 2020 with the fatality index of 2 deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles in line with the United Nations Global Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.
However, he said that there was an increase in the number of fatalities due to road accidents for whole country with 7,152 being recorded in 2016 compared to 6,706 in 2015.
Therefore, he said the RSD hoped the number of fatalities would drop nationwide not only for Sabah alone as the department was continuously carrying various awareness programs related to road safety.
In conjunction with the Harvest Festival Month, JKJR Sabah will hold road safety campaigns involving RSD and other enforcement agencies as well as other government departments as part of the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) effort.
“As for the this Harvest Festival, RSD has launched a road safety campaign with its tagline “Slow down” or pronounced in Sabah language as “Palan Palan Bah”.
“Apart from this, JKJR Sabah had also organised Road Safety Week focusing on ‘Speed Management’ started on May 8 till May 14,” he told this to reporters after launching the “Palan Palan Bah” campaign at Mile 8, off Labuk Road, yesterday.
The program was also attended by State Road Safety Department director Josliw Bin Matjumping, heads of government departments such as from Road Transport Department, police and PUSPAKOM.