Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye
SIBU: The government should consider introducing a ‘Drive Safe and Pay Less’ scheme as part of measures to reduce road accidents and deaths in the country, said Road Safety Council member Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.
He said for this scheme, one of four measures he proposed was that drivers who have undergone defensive driving courses should qualify for payment of lesser insurance premium for their vehicles.
On the second measure, he said the government should rely on school education to create a new breed of motorists and motorcyclists who care for themselves and for others.
“In this connection, it should have a syllabus on road safety for schools to inculcate the need to practise good etiquette and behaviour on the road as well as to build a road safety culture,” Lee said in press statement yesterday.
The third measure is for the government to identify all dangerous stretches of federal, state and municipal roads and take steps to rectify them and make them safe for all road users, he said.
As for the fourth measure, Lee proposed that drivers who drive recklessly and cause fatalities should be imposed a mandatory jail sentence.
“We view with utmost concern the frequent reports of road accidents, fatalities and injuries which are not only tragic to the families involved but also a loss to the nation’s workforce.
“Traffic-related motor vehicle crashes is one of the leading causes of work-related injuries and deaths. Furthermore, commuting accidents also make up a significant percentage of industrial accidents reported to Socso (Social Security Organisation) yearly,” he noted.
Lee said employers and employees must take cognisance of the serious road deaths numbering about six to seven thousand yearly, and be prepared to address the issue with a view towards reducing the number of road deaths.
“In particular, employers have a duty to protect their employees and other road users by adopting the approach of managing occupational road risk in order to reduce business losses which arise from ‘at work’ road accidents.”
He suggested that employers develop and implement comprehensive safety procedures and programmes for the workplace to reduce accidents, deaths and injuries, including providing training to their employees to be competent drivers and riders.