Call for road safety programme to educate highway users

KUCHING: A road safety awareness programme needs to be implemented to familiarise users with new road arrangements on the Pan Borneo Highway which is in the final stages of construction, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.

He said the implementation of P-turns as a substitute for traditional U-turns on highways is one of several arrangements that road users are still not fully accustomed to. This lack of familiarity has led to P-turns being one of the contributing factors to accidents.

“Pan Borneo is the first highway in Sarawak with a four-lane dual carriageway where we see quite a lot of accidents occur,” he told Bernama after attending the Sarawak Pan Borneo Safety Advocacy Roadshow Programme here yesterday.

According to the statistics, Fadillah said a total of 355 fatal accidents were reported between January and June, which he deemed alarming.

In addition to the new road arrangements, he said speeding, driving against traffic flow, and removing guardrails to take shortcuts to get to destinations faster were other contributing factors to accidents on the highway.

Fadillah also said the roadshow programme, which involved community leaders for the Kuching zone, would be held in stages in other parts of Sarawak.

The programme was jointly organised with the Sarawak Public Works Department, the Royal Malaysia Police, the Road Transport Department, Pengurusan Lebuh Raya Pan Borneo Sarawak and district offices statewide.

Fadillah said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had directed him to assist Public Works Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi in finding a solution to expedite the completion of the highway.

He said that two of the three sections of the Sarawak Pan Borneo Highway, namely Sarikei and Bukit Begunan, are scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, while the Lambir section near Miri will be completed next year.