JPJ urged to prevent errant motorists from renewing licences

BENTONG: The Road Transport Department (JPJ) has been asked to synchronise its list of blacklisted drivers with that of the police and Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) to prevent errant motorists from renewing their driving licences.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said he was aware that the JPJ could not suspend the licences of drivers blacklisted by the police because the software used by the two agencies as well as SPAD was not synchronised.

“I have directed the JPJ director-general to come up with a programme to synchronise the list, so that the JPJ will be informed of the police list and we can take action to blacklist the drivers,” he said yesterday after an inspection visit of houses in Bentong which were damaged by a storm on Tuesday.

He was responding to a news report on Wednesday that thousands of motorists and drivers of commercial vehicles were still able to renew their licences because the police data on errant motorists to be blacklisted was not immediately available to JPJ.

On Sunday, a driver with nine outstanding summonses rammed his express bus into 10 vehicles along the North-South Expressway, apparently due to a faulty brake system.

Liow said that services were being improved from time to time to reduce road accidents.

He said the ministry was also counting on the implementation of the Automated Awareness Safety System (AWAS) – a combination of the Automated Enforcement System (AES) and the Demerit Points System (Kejara) – to suspend the licences of reckless drivers.

“We will take action against the defaulters, especially with the AWAS programme when it is launched with the demerit Kejara system. We will be able to cancel their licences,” he added.

In February, Liow said that the AWAS system was a more holistic approach to reducing the number of road accidents.

The Road Transport (Amendment) Bill was passed in May to enable the system to be introduced, and it is now being worked out.

Liow said that once the AWAS system is implemented, the demerit system would be used against errant drivers where points would be deducted for each offence, while their driving licence would be suspended if they had accumulated more than the maximum allowed points.

Earlier, Liow, who is Bentong MP, was briefed by Bentong District Officer Datuk Ashar Arshad on the location and number of houses that were damaged by the storm.

He advised the victims to lodge a police report to allow the authorities to assess the damage and to enable them to receive emergency assistance.