KUALA LUMPUR: Swift and uncompromising action is needed against errant heavy vehicle drivers, says Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.
As a member of the Road Safety Council, he urges authorities to fully enforce stricter safety measures following recent road tragedies involving buses, lorries, and trucks.
Lee commended the government’s initiative to crack down on reckless commercial vehicle operators, especially through the creation of a comprehensive database of traffic offenders.
"This is a crucial step toward ensuring that individuals with a record of serious traffic offences are permanently barred from operating public or heavy vehicles," he said.
"Such a database should have been established much earlier," he added in a statement on Saturday (June 14).
The proposed database must include offences such as reckless driving, speeding, substance abuse, dangerous overtaking, and incidents resulting in fatalities, he stated.
Drivers with repeated or serious violations should be immediately disqualified from driving heavy vehicles.
He also raised concerns over driver fatigue and overwork, especially among drivers paid per trip.
"Employers must review such payment schemes in the interest of public safety. Safety must come before employment," he stressed.
Lee called for a full audit and screening of all current heavy vehicle drivers, including bus operators, to prevent individuals with poor driving records from remaining on the roads. He said the public’s safety should never be compromised by administrative delays or leniency.
He also urged for corporate accountability, noting that transport companies hiring drivers with known violations must be penalised.
"There should be corporate liability provisions, ensuring operators are responsible for vetting their drivers' competence, training, and records," he said.
Citing the recent Gerik bus crash, he said such tragedies are preventable.
"This would not have happened if the driver and the vehicle had been taken off the road through strict enforcement," he remarked.
While acknowledging that policies and frameworks are already in place, Lee stressed the need for robust and consistent enforcement.
He proposed increased spot checks, the use of dashcams, telematics, and black box systems for buses and lorries, along with stricter enforcement of rest periods.
"We cannot wait for another fatal accident to make headlines. The time to act is now. Every life lost due to negligence or recklessness on the road is one too many and preventable," he said.
