KOTA KINABALU: The Road and Transport Department (RTD) will be installing an Automatic Enforcement System (AES) to catch speed demons and errant road users in action.According to RTD director- general Datuk Solah Mat Hassan, the AES will be installed in 831 accident-prone locations throughout the country including 30 in Sabah.
The AES is a fixed camera which will be installed at locations identified as black areas will capture photographs of speed demons at these accident-prone roads and traffic lights, he told reporters after an award presentation ceremony for Sabah RTD staff here yesterday.
In Sabah, RTD has identified 20 ‘speeding’ areas and 10 ‘traffic lights’ where road users frequently break the law and will install the AES there.
There will be an additional 10 mobile units for Sabah to be operated by the RTD patrol units.
According to him, based on data collected by the police the most common causes of road accidents were speeding, beating the traffic red light, overtaking from the left side and tail gating.
The offenders’ photograph captured by the AES will be sent for matching at RTD and the owner of the vehicle will receive a summons for the offence within two days it is committed, he said before disclosing the system will be on 24-7, 365 days.
“We hope to have the AES installed and implemented by Hari Raya this year and our aim is to ‘treat’ these accident-prone areas, not to just simply issue summonses,” Solah stressed.
RTD will also put up signboards in the areas where the AES is installed, thus warning the road users of the consequences if they chose to ignore the law, he said, adding that the Government has appointed two companies to develop, operate and maintain the system.
Solah also said that RTD would be taking steps and implementing new approaches to resolve the problem of unsettled summonses issued to road users in the country from 2000 to 2008.
He disclosed that between RTD, the police and Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, the total number of unsettled summonses issued by these three enforcement agencies for the nine year period is 17 million.
For RTD, the figure is about 500,000 and the reason why the offenders have not settled the summonses boils down to their ‘couldn’t care less attitude’, he said, adding that another factor was that from 2000 to 2009, the database system for the three enforcement agencies were not yet fully computerised.
“We will, through the mass media, advise the offenders to settle their outstanding summonses and if they fail to do so within a stipulated time frame, they risk being blacklisted by RTD, he said.
In his speech earlier, Solah disclosed that the number of consumer complaints received against RTD increased from 8.071 in 2008 to 11,720 last year.
From January to March this year, a total of 3,135 complaints were lodged among which against lack of enforcement, abuse of power, not complying with the necessary procedures and unsatisfactory service either through the counter or telephone, he said.
He however urged the state RTD staff present to take the increased number of complaints as constructive criticism and use it to improve their service especially in the delivery system.
When the customer’s expectation is high, the number of complaints will increase, he explained and stressed that what was important was that the staff would not get the same complaints repeatedly.
“To further strengthen RTD operations, I am proposing to have the department’s SOP certified by ISO next year. This move will also standardize the regulations of all RTD offices throughout the country,” he said.