Not a day goes by when we do not read about road accidents and fatalities.
Last Saturday, tragedy struck a family when their four-wheel drive vehicle overturned at KM117 of Jalan Kuala Terengganu-Kemaman. The driver had lost control of the vehicle. All died, including a six-year-old child.
On the same day, in Dungun, a lorry driver died when his vehicle crashed into the rear of a trailer at KM373.5 of the East Coast Expressway.
I, myself, was involved in an accident a number of years ago. I hit a taxi from behind. Luckily, the taxi had a sturdy bumper and amazingly escaped without a scratch, while the front of my car was damaged.
The prospect of accidents happening in the country is going up by the day. In early 2013 it was revealed that there is one vehicle for every 1.2 Malaysians. To be exact, the report said there were 22.7 million vehicles and 28 million Malaysians as of Dec 31, 2012.
The vehicles were concentrated in high density areas such as the Federal Territories (5.3 million vehicles), Johor (3.09 million), Selangor (2.46 million) and Penang (2.32 million).
The latest revelation by the Road Transport Department that 80 per cent of the 117,000 students who ride motorcycles to school do not have a licence should worry us, too.
Accidents are bound to happen no matter whether you travel on foot, or by bicycle, car or bus.
Another factor is drivers behaving erratically. For example, Malaysian drivers have a habit of making right or left turns without signalling.
Also, quite a few drivers are of the “fast and furious” type and get involved in illegal racing. They don’t know and don’t care about the meaning of the speed limit.
The presence of more and more big bikes on the highways is another risk factor.
Some drivers are easily distracted while driving. Some say billboards along the roads or highways can do that to you. Using handphones, texting and taking selfies while driving are also distracting.
Road constraints are another factor. There are just too much construction going on, and even the designs of urban infrastructure can be considered obstructions and contribute to accidents.
About two weeks ago, a 86-year-old driver who was travelling with his maid, lost control of his car, crashed through flimsy safety barriers and plunged into a 12m deep construction manhole in Petaling Jaya.
It would not have happened if the contractors had installed concrete barriers instead of plastic ones around the construction site.
The accident should serve as a warning to contractors not to take things, especially safety, lightly.
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye put it succinctly when he said: “For too long, there has been a lot of lip service to safety and health issues, but in practice, it leaves much to be desired.
“Many contractors have gotten away but it is time for the authorities to go hard on them as the safety and health of the public must never be compromised.”
All this and we have not touched on potholes and manholes left over from years and years of construction activities that can endanger road users.
It has been proposed to the local and federal authorities to implement more strict and careful coordination and planning of construction work, especially road-related work.
Drivers, contractors and government agencies need to play a role when it comes to road safety; if only some people are willing to shoulder this responsibility then tragedies won’t continue to happen.
Drivers need to obey traffic laws and behave ethically. Contractors cannot shirk their responsibility when carrying out road works while the authorities must ensure that the rules are followed and penalise offenders.
In order to be responsible road users, attitudes need to change. I suspect that is the one thing that all of us find hard to do due to the differing priorities of drivers and authorities even though there is agreement about the need to make roads safe.
For example, the authorities have installed 1,200 Automated Enforcement System (AES) cameras at danger spots on highways nationwide.
Only 40 per cent of respondents chose the “happy” emoticon on the New Straits Times website to indicate their support for the move, while 60 per cent were sad, probably because they see it as a punitive measure.
In the end, there’s only one question we need to ask ourselves. Do we want roads to be safe or not? If yes, then we need to do whatever necessary to make them safe.
Azman Abdul Hamid is Berita Harian Features/Oped Editor