KUALA LUMPUR: Police will make available data on road accidents daily, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
He said that with this data, he hoped all media outlets would publish the statistics to increase awareness about the high number of road fatalities.
Loke said road accidents were the fourth-highest cause of deaths in Malaysia, recording 6,443 deaths last year.
"Out of the total, two-thirds, or 4,880, were motorcycle accidents.
"If you prorate that (the total), that is 18 deaths a day, or one death in every 80 minutes.
"This number is higher than the number of deaths due to Covid-19," he said at a press conference in the Parliament Building here today (March 6).
He said he hoped the daily updates would get Malaysians make road safety a priority.
"We need to take a whole-of-society approach to reduce the number of road accidents.
"Road accidents are just as dangerous as Covid-19 so we must give attention to road safety.
"With the daily updates from the police, we want to change the mindset of Malaysians not to take road safety lightly."
Loke added that his ministry would coordinate with police on the daily data reporting mechanism.
"We want to report road accidents just as how Covid-19 cases were reported daily (during the pandemic)."