Liow: Laws to be reviewed to curb road accidents

Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai

PUTRAJAYA: Traffic laws in the country will be reviewed and improved to effectively reduce road accidents and deaths.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said numerous efforts taken to save lives such as conducting road safety campaigns and educating schoolchildren had failed to bring down the figures.

“Now, we want to review the laws to see how we can improve our enforcement to effectively reduce road accidents and fatalities,” he told reporters after attending the 70th JPJ Day here yesterday.

Liow said the Road Transport Department (JPJ) was planning to place its kiosk machines at shopping malls to provide better convenience for the people.

The machine would enable motorists to renew their road tax, check and pay JPJ summonses as well as obtain information on vehicle insurance, among others.

Liow said a special committee would also be set up soon to improve the administration and management structure of the department to ensure that JPJ would continue to give its best service.

JPJ director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad said the department attended to some 60,000 customers nationwide daily.

As of last year, he said JPJ handled 26 million vehicle registrations and issued 14.7 million driving licences.

“Last year, we collected RM3.7bil in revenue and were the third highest (among all government agencies) for the 10th consecutive year,” he said in his speech at the event.

Ismail said JPJ had also launched various programmes to ensure that everyone could have easy access to its services.

Among the programmes are the Satu Komuniti Satu JPJ (SKSJ) programme to reach out to the rural community, MyLesen to encourage young riders to get a licence, e-daftar online registration of vehicles and the borderless registration system for cross-state registration of vehicles.

He said some 100,000 people, aged 45 and above, had benefitted from the SKSJ programme since it was launched in 2009, while about 65,000 youths obtained their motorcycle licences at a discounted rate under MyLesen last year.

“The 1JPJ Young Squad was set up to engage youths in raising road safety awareness. We have 300,000 members now and are aiming for one million members in 2020.”

Ismail said the department also planned to introduce the Cadet JPJ programme to 200 schools this year.

The programme, aimed at raising road safety awareness among school children, is currently being held at 17 schools nationwide.