Road users advised to shift to public transport especially during festive season

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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians are advised to slowly make a transition from using private vehicle towards public transport in order to reduce the number of vehicles on the road, which could lead to a reduction in road accidents especially during the festive season.

Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Safe Kids Malaysia (UPM-SKM) executive director Associate Prof Dr Kulanthayan KC Mani said there are some trips where road users could make a mode shift towards using public transport from private vehicles.

“At all times (festive or non-festive) we should slowly shift some of our travels to public transport for our safety on the road,” he told Bernama here, yesterday.

Kulanthayan said, in conjunction with the upcoming Hari Raya Aidilfitri festive season, UPM-SKM has come up with three ways which are expected to reduce road fatalities among road users such as exposure control, crash prevention and injury reduction.

“Moving from private vehicle to public transport is one effective way to reduce exposure which is called exposure control strategy,” he said.

Apart from that, Kulanthayan said one of the most promising strategies, in terms of crash prevention and injury reduction for road safety, was reducing speed.

“Speed can cause injury as it carries energy. For an adult in an open space (outside vehicle-pedestrian and cyclist), the maximum transfer of energy they can absorb is 30kmh (kilometre per hour). Anything above it can be a fatal crash,” he said.

He also said that the best injury prevention strategy was to make full use of the existing safety products or safety restraints available within the vehicle.

“Safety belts can reduce the probability of being killed by 40 to 50 per cent for drivers and front passengers and by about 25 per cent for rear seat passengers,” he said, stressing that every car occupants must use a seat belt.

Kulanthayan said for child passengers travelling in a car, they need to be seated at the rear seats and not front seats, because the availability of airbags in the front seat is not suitable for children to be seated close to them.

As for motorcyclists, Kulanthayan said the best safety product available to save them from injuries are safety standard helmets with SIRIM label, which could reduce 40 per cent risk of death and 70 per cent risk of severe injury.

It was reported that based on statistics by the Royal Malaysian Police, a total of 521,446 accidents were recorded last year with 7,152 fatalities, which translates to an average of 19 deaths per day, making it a public health issue that Malaysians need to address in order to reduce the rate of road related fatalities. — Bernama