MELAKA: After witnessing the aftermath of an accident that left five pupils shaken and injured in Rembia in Alor Gajah here, the Melaka Chief Minister now wants to ramp up efforts to improve road safety, targeting schools.
This also comes after the area recorded a high number of road accidents in the first seven months of the year.
Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh was on his way to an event after returning from the Malaysian Agriculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism Exhibition in Serdang, Selangor, on Thursday when he encountered a sports utility vehicle (SUV) that had landed on its side along the Alor Gajah-Melaka Tengah-Jasin Highway near Sungai Petai here.
Stopping to help, he saw the pupils of a Chinese primary school in Alor Gajah being rescued.
“The children were in tears and appeared traumatised. I hope all of those receiving treatment are out of danger.
“I got emotional seeing those kids in such a situation,” he said when interviewed yesterday.
Ab Rauf commended members of the public and the Melaka Fire and Rescue Department for their prompt action in helping the victims.
He said more high-level road safety campaigns must be activated to reduce traffic accidents involving schoolchildren and parents in the state.
Last week, Melaka Road Transport Department director Muhammad Firdaus Shariff revealed that road accidents involving schoolchildren in the Alor Gajah district were the highest in the state from January to July this year.
Of the 14 accidents reported during that period, 10 happened in Alor Gajah, with the rest in Melaka Tengah and Jasin.
Early last year, the then chief minister Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali revived the state’s Road Safety Council (MJKR) in view of the increasing number of road fatalities in the state.
Sulaiman was quoted as saying that the functions of MJKR were still vital in identifying accident-prone areas and preventing deaths.MJKR was among six state agencies that were closed in May 2018 by the then Melaka government, which said they were no longer relevant.
Meanwhile, on the accident involving the SUV, Alor Gajah Fire and Rescue Department commander Mohd Nazri Mat Rais said the five schoolchildren and the female driver were sent to Hospital Alor Gajah for treatment.
“We arrived at the scene at 1.34pm after receiving a distress call. The SUV was believed to have rammed into a tree before landing on its side,” he said.
It is learnt that the driver was trying to avoid another vehicle before losing control of the SUV and crashing into a tree.
