Do more for road safety

time recorded on Aug 21, 2013 when a bus travelling down the Genting Highlands resort plunged into a ravine, killing 37 people while many others were seriously injured.

It was never reported later whether there were any more deaths among those who were maimed in the crash as the standard practice had been only to report on those who died on the spot.

Following this disaster, an independent board of inquiry some months later came out with its findings as well as some 51 recommendations to mitigate future accidents and loss of life.

One such safety measure mentioned in the panel’s report was for the compulsory use of safety belts in buses, which, although having been made mandatory for car drivers and passengers for decades now, amazingly still doesn’t apply to express buses. What kind of a joke is this, actually?

Realistically, we don’t need rocket science or an expensive board of inquiry to tell us this, it’s pure common sense because there are many times more people travelling in an express bus than in a car.

In hindsight, it’s rather strange that when the seat belt law was enforced decades ago, why were buses left out by lawmakers and the relevant government bodies?

Many lives could have been saved in the Genting Highlands tragedy and others had the law been extended to buses because in a crash, passengers would normally be thrown out of the vehicle.

I know for a fact that the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) has done a lot of work on ways and means to enhance road safety but it’s sad to say that Malaysia still occupies among the top spots when it comes to having a very high number of road fatalities.

We even have a dedicated Road Safety Department but if there’s one issue I would want to pick with these two agencies, it is the fact that both have been rather media-shy.

They should not continue to do so but instead be mediasavvy or friendly as they have to be accountable to the public at large because they are funded by public money.

We all want to know the kind of research done to help minimise the ever growing number of accidents, which are the major cause of deaths in the nation, averaging close to 7,000 annually.

Whatever research carried out should not be left to gather dust in the cabinet.

I sat down for coffee with Miros director-general Dr Siti Zaharah Ishak a few days ago during which I impressed upon her the need to have regular sessions with the media regarding work done by her agency.

And I told her that as the first woman to head Miros, she could make a positive difference.

So it is with the Road Safety Department. It’s been such a long time since we last read or heard of it carrying out road safety campaigns or issuing public service announcements on road safety.

To these two agencies, please be more proactive and effective by employing more out-of-the box road safety efforts.

Two years ago at a retreat attended by the nation’s top civil servants, a very senior Transport Ministry official asked me for some ideas on how to beef up road safety.