‘Ops Selamat’ all about safety on roads, rivers, seas and houses

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KOTA SAMARAHAN: Police will be conducting ‘Ops Selamat 12/2018’ with focus on accident-prone areas or ‘black spots’ and ‘hot spots’ for burglary this Chinese New Year season from Feb 9-23.

State Commissioner of Police Dato Sri Amer Awal said the operation aims to ensure road users and homes left unattended are safe during this festive period.

“Our operation will be based on ‘total enforcement’ since the ‘awareness’ concept advocated before was not effective in deterring drivers and road users,” he said.

“We hope the new concept will make our drivers and road users drive carefully this festive period.” His text of speech was read by his deputy Datuk Pahlawan Dzuraidi Ibrahim who officiated at the event  at Farley Supermarket in Bandar Riyal Kota Samarahan yesterday.

Amer revealed that ‘Ops Selamat’ was also about house safety, especially those left unattended during the festive period.

He said apart from road and home safety, police will work with the Sarawak Rivers Board and Sarawak Marine Department to focus on the safety of sea and river transport.

“The police and these two agencies will collaborate with express boat operators to ensure the safety of their passengers are given priority to achieve zero incident on the seas or rivers,” he disclosed.

The theme for this year’s Ops Selamat 12/2018 is ‘Rumah Selamat dan Selamat Sampai ke Destinasi’ or ‘Safe Homes

and Safe Journey to Destinations’.

The total number of deaths resulting from road accidents was 400 (373 cases) in 2017 from 432 deaths (386 cases) in 2016 – a drop of 7.4 per cent.

The number of ‘black spots’ or accident-prone areas from 2015 to 2017 was 17 at federal roads in Sarawak.

The breakdown by district for ‘black spots’ are Bau at Km 2 and Km 9 Jalan Bau/Lundu; in Kota Samarahan at Km 1, Km 6, Km 11 and Km 16 at Jalan Datuk Mohd Musa; in Sri Aman at Km 65 Jalan Sri Aman/Kuching, Km 20, Km 53 and Km 56 Jalan Sri Aman/ Sarikei; in Lubok Antu at Km 35 JalanSri Aman Sarikei; in Sarikei at Km 431 Jalan Sri Aman /Sarikei/Meradong; in Mukah at Km 71, Km 79 and Km 114 Jalan Sibu/Bintulu; and in Lawas at Km1 Jalan Lawas /Trusan and Km 4 Jalan Lawas/Merapok.

Present at the event were Kota Samarahan Deputy Resident Richard Michael Abunawas, State Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department Chief Supt Alexson Naga Chabu, Community Policing Association Sarawak chairman Datuk John Lau, and Farley Supermarket managing director Eiyen Lau.