‘Don’t use handphones while driving’

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KUCHING: The State Traffic Police advised the public not to use handphones while driving as it’s distracting for the driver and could endanger lives.

Its chief Supt Mohammad Sar’ie Fauzi said during the Chinese New Year (CNY) season, police taking part in the road safety campaign from Jan 1 to Feb 26 issue compounds on the spot, but the Road Transport Department enforcers sends offenders to court.

He said the compound is a maximum RM300 for driving with handphones unless the suspects were just holding them.

Sar’ie said this when asked to clarify on whether police would send offenders to court, like the JPJ.

He said the new offence is framed under Section 17 A of the Road Traffic Regulations 1959.

It is among seven offences for which JPJ would send offenders to court during the CNY road safety campaign from Jan 21 to Feb 5, 2017.

The other offences are driving on emergency lanes; non- compliance with traffic light rules; overtaking at double lanes; failing to use safety belt and helmet, and hogging the right lane (for public transport).

On Tuesday, State Police chief Datuk Mazlan Mansor said eight methods would be implemented during the campaign codenamed ‘Ops Lancar’ such as patrolling to ensure smoother traffic flow and no obstacles, and carrying out point duty and district-by-district monitoring.

‘Op Lancar’ would also ease traffic flow in congested areas while ‘Op Perangkap Laju’ (TRU CAM) would be implemented in accident-prone areas together with ‘Op Ronda’. The patrol team would gather feedback from the public through ‘Stop and Talk’, in addition to enforcement.

A ‘Response Team’ has been established to respond immediately during an accident, disaster or emergency.

The campaign also aims to reduce road accidents during ‘Op Selamat 8/2016’ with 722 cases – an increase of 110 or 18 per cent from 2015’s ‘Op Selamat’.

The number of fatal accidents dropped from 11 to eight cases and the number of deaths from 12 to nine.

On traffic summonses issued during last CNY, police said it was 14,249 summonses, an increase of 174 or 1.2 per cent from 14,075 summonses in 2015.