Lam Thye calls on employers, employees to collaborate to prevent commuting accidents
SIBU: Employers and employees have been urged to collaborate and be committed to building a culture of preventing commuting accidents.
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health ( Niosh) chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye made this call yesterday as the number of commuting accidents involving employees has increased 16.59 per cent in the past three years from 28,579 accidents in 2015 to 31,319 in 2017 as reported by Socso.
“A major occupational safety and health issue in Malaysia is commuting accidents involving employees who commute from their homes to their place of work and vice-versa.
“The number of road fatalities in Malaysia is alarming. There are more than 6,000 fatalities every year for the last few years and that translates into 18 – 20 people killed every day. Motorcyclists and pillion riders make up about 60 per cent of the fatalities and most of them are young and in the prime of their lives,” he said in a press statement yesterday.
According to Lee, commuting accidents normally involve multiple injuries and the injuries sustained are far more worse and traumatising when compared to the workplace accidents.
He pointed out that commuting accidents happen due to the lack of awareness, comprehensive training, Commuting Safety Management or lack of road safety in OSH Management System at workplaces.
He said Niosh is actively involved in encouraging employers to commit their employees in its Safe Motorcycle Defensive Riding Training Programme. It is working on improving the training module for future safe motorcycle riding and defensive driving courses.
He said that employers have a moral obligation to adopt a proactive approach to managing occupational road risk as well as to implementing the Industrial Code of Practice ( ICOP) on safety, health and the environment.
“Employers can help change the driving attitude and behaviour of their employees by devising safe journeys, using safe vehicles and providing driver training to prevent road accidents to protect their employees and other road users, while incurring less direct accident cost, lost staff time, insurance premiums and gain better public image.