PETALING JAYA: In a span of 13 years, 2,900 underage persons have died while riding motorcycles, says Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) Children’s Commissioner Dr Farah Nini Dusuki.
In Malaysia, the legal age for riding a motorcycle on public roads is 16 years old, and the rider must have a valid motorcycle licence.
However, the above statistics referred to those aged six and 15 years old who met with a fatal accident between 2008 and 2021, she said.
The most alarming thing, said Farah Nini, is that of the total, 87 cases involved children between the ages of six and 10 years old dying from accidents as riders of motorcycles, not as pillion, a phenomenon she called “unimaginable”.
At a press conference by Suhakam in Kuala Lumpur on ethical news reporting regarding children yesterday, she said the figures are alarming, and called for more public action and outcry over the prevalence of illegal motorcycle riding here.
“One of our plans this year, which may continue till 2025, is to strengthen laws on the safety of children on the road,” Farah Nini said.
She previously said negligent parents and guardians should be held accountable for failing to exercise oversight over their children, allowing them to operate motorcycles illegally and then getting into road accidents.
She said these deaths could have been prevented if their parents had exercised proper vigilance.
Farah Nini also called for updates from the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research about a proposed motorcycle licence category called the B3, which restricts riders aged from 16 to 20 to either electric motorcycles or mopeds with engines not exceeding 70cc.
Farah Nini, who had endorsed a recommendation to study the proposal by the police in 2021, also expressed concern over two fatal accidents in August involving underage motorcycle riders. On Aug 9, a 12-year-old boy who rode a three-wheeled motorcycle caused the death of a 16-month-old toddler in Bachok, Kelantan, who fell into an irrigation canal.
On Aug 15, two 13-year-old boys lost their lives after their motorcycles collided with each other while performing stunts in Elmina, Shah Alam.
