The MCA has called on authorities to take swift action to address Malaysia's pressing road safety concerns, particularly those involving trailer containers.
During a press conference at Wisma MCA on Friday (Nov 22), MCA Deputy President Datuk Mah Hang Soon highlighted recent fatal accidents involving trailer containers, pointing to mechanical issues such as overloading, poor structural integrity, and unsafe loading practices as key factors.
Mah also suggested banning heavy vehicles, such as long-haul lorries, from using main roads during peak traffic hours, citing a similar measure introduced by the Road Transport Department in 2022.
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During a press conference at Wisma MCA on Friday (Nov 22), MCA Deputy President Datuk Mah Hang Soon highlighted recent fatal accidents involving trailer containers, pointing to mechanical issues such as overloading, poor structural integrity, and unsafe loading practices as key factors.
Mah also suggested banning heavy vehicles, such as long-haul lorries, from using main roads during peak traffic hours, citing a similar measure introduced by the Road Transport Department in 2022.
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SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
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NewsTranscript
00:00When you look at the statistics, in 2023, there were nearly 6,443 road fatalities, so
00:16meaning on average 18 deaths in road accidents every day.
00:22Road accidents constitute a serious public health challenge to our nation.
00:29In 2003, accidents were the fifth principal cause of death in Malaysia.
00:36And in that year, transport accidents remained within the top five, actually at fourth place.
00:46Not much has changed in 20 years.
00:48What about in 2022?
00:53In 2022, Malaysia recorded one road accident per minute, or 1,494 accidents per day, and
01:04it involved one death in every 86 minutes.
01:10So in view of these staggering statistics, I'd like to call upon the Ministry of Transport
01:17as the lead policy decision agency to re-examine the issue of road safety.
01:26In every of these accidents, there were three critical causes.
01:33They are human factors, mechanical and engineering factors, while road conditions cannot be overlooked.
01:43Driver behaviour or human factor is one of the leading causes of accidents.
01:48According to a report by Kunia Insurance, the five most common causes of accidents related
01:55to driver's behaviour are speeding, using mobile phone while driving, distracted driving,
02:04recklessness, dangerous or aggressive driving and beating the red light.
02:10Oftentimes, the driver's behaviour was influenced by the number of trips made, which led to
02:16fatigue, resulting with sleepiness and carelessness.
02:23So in view of the recent fatal accidents involving trailer containers, not referring specifically
02:32to any one of them, other factors related with the mechanical aspect of the trailer
02:39container, be it overloading, or the structure of the trailer, or how the container was loaded
02:48and how secure the container was.
02:51The manner in which the 20ft container was loaded onto the 40ft trailer container could
02:58explain why the container fell off the trailer or the accident occurred.
03:05Loading a 20ft container at the end of a 40ft container defies the law of physics regarding
03:14the centre of gravity.
03:17This probably caused by the container to spin, as you have seen just now, and tumble away
03:24from the trailer, especially when the trailer was negotiating a bend.
03:33So like to ask, we like to know, was the container twist lock 40, or did the twist lock properly
03:42lock the container to the trailer?
03:47Were there sufficient locks to fasten the lock, the load securely to the vehicle?
03:53As I mentioned just now, I have been asked by the members of the public who have raised
03:58and draw to my attention that despite such concerns, and with the numbers of road accidents
04:05involving heavy vehicles, such heavy trailers continue to roam the streets and highways.
04:13The authorities need to probe the structure and the integrity of the trailer container.
04:18They need to uncover if many of these trailer containers might have been modified or did
04:24not have the necessary safety features, nor follow safety guidelines to ensure that the
04:31containers were loaded securely.
04:34These human and mechanical errors and faults call for a deeper investigation and review
04:39of the operating procedures for trailer container vehicles.
04:45It is now the responsibility of the relevant authorities to take a hard look on road safety,
04:52especially when it leads to fatality.
04:56With more than sufficient authorities and agencies conducting licensing, enforcement,
05:04education and research, we still need to review whether these authorities and agencies are
05:10coordinating their action plan.
05:15We have, as I said, many agencies like the Road Transport Department, Malaysia Institute
05:24of Road Safety and Research, MIROS, and Land Public Transport Agency.
05:31All these departments and agencies have roles in the whole spectrum of road safety, including
05:38licensing, vehicle inspection, education and enforcement, and research and accident
05:46investigations are all under the wing of the MOT now.
05:51Therefore, inter-agency coordination should be smoother and should not be a problem.
05:59So I would like to bring to the attention of the authorities some recommendations.
06:06While this mammoth task confronts us, it is even more important for the government
06:11to fund more innovative methods to lower the number of road accidents, and especially those
06:17involving heavy vehicles.
06:21Measures such as the more stringent checks by Postpacom, introducing measures to implement
06:34the recommendations by the MIROS should and must be done immediately.
06:41We also call upon the authorities and agencies to better educate drivers, be it motorists,
06:49motorcyclists, bus drivers, lorry drivers and truck drivers.
06:55Ultimately, it is the lives of the road users which take precedence.