KUALA LUMPUR: The increase in the death toll during Ops Sikap XX, which ended on Sunday, should serve as a wake-up call to the country’s road users, police here said.
“The increase reflects the attitude of Malaysian drivers, who have yet to change their habits on the road,” Federal traffic police chief Senior Asst Comm (II) Datuk Abdul Aziz Yusof told a news conference yesterday.
He said there were still many road users flouting traffic laws, with 80% of fatal accidents resulting from recklessness.
During the Sept 13-27 operation, 265 deaths were reported compared to 208 for the previous operation, while the number of accidents increased to 17,335 from 15,996, and 152,745 summonses were issured compared with 124,581.
However, SAC (II) Abdul Aziz said the increased death toll did not mean the operation had failed. He added that despite an increase in fatalities, they averaged slightly lower at 17.7%, compared with 17.8% in 2008.
This, he said, was despite more vehicles using the North-South Expressway this year. The number of vehicles totalled two million, compared with 1.5 million last year.
“Therefore, we cannot just look at the statistics but need to look at the whole picture,” he added. SAC (II) Abdul Aziz said education, engineering and emergency feedback, not just enforcement, were important in reducing traffic accidents.
“Ops Sikap is conducted to change the attitude of road users. As long as they are still keeping to old habits, we will keep seeing a rise in fatal accidents, despite all the efforts.”
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