JPJ officers go undercover to nab errant motorists

KUALA LUMPUR: Road Transport Department (JPJ) enforcement officers have gone undercover to nab errant motorists during the Chinese New Year balik kampung period.

In just four days since the start of the operation on Feb 12, some 282 motorists were caught on camera by these officers for various offences around the city.

Kuala Lumpur JPJ director Ahmad Ziki Abdul Rahman said the plainclothes officers were focusing on motorists who commit the “seven big sins” while on the road.

The offences are beating the red light, driving in the emergency lanes, overtaking along the double lines, jumping queue, using the handphone while driving, motorcyclists not wearing helmets and failure of backseat passengers to belt up.

“From Feb 12 to Feb 15, our undercover officers took photographs of 176 motorists beating the red light.

“They will be receiving their summonses in the mail,” he said after the launch of the department’s Chinese New Year road safety campaign at the PLUS Sungai Besi toll plaza yesterday.

He said the undercover officers, working in teams of two, also caught on camera 45 motorists jumping queue and 45 others using the emergency lane.

He added that 16 were summoned for failing to get their backseat passengers to belt up. He said similar undercover JPJ teams were being deployed nationwide.

Ahmad Ziki also said that 402 buses were inspected and summonses issued to five of them for having faulty odometers and two for cracked front windscreens.

He added that officers from the National Anti-Drug Agency also screened bus drivers during the same period with no driver tested positive for drug use so far.

Earlier, at a separate press conference, Kuala Lumpur Road Safety Council president Datuk Salleh Yusup said there was a slight drop in the number of accidents in the city, from 63,020 cases in 2013 to 62,986 last year.

He also said that road fatalities decreased from 323 cases in 2013 to 221 cases last year.