Govt loses RM79 bln due to fatal road accidents — deputy minister

KUALA LUMPUR: The government lost RM79 billion due to 65,850 fatal road accidents from 2004 to 2013, said Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi yesterday.

He said the loss was because those who were killed had received numerous incentives and facilities from the government, including health services, education and educational financing.

“Last year alone, 6,915 people were killed in mishaps on the road, resulting in the government losing RM8.3 billion.

“Based on the statistics last year, 19 people were killed in road mishaps daily and the death index was 2.90 for every 10,000 vehicles registered last year,” he said.

He said this at a media conference after opening the 2014 national level programme, The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, with the theme ‘Speed Kills - Tackling Speed Via Design’ at Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS), Bandar Tasik Selatan here yesterday.

In attendance were Road Safety Department director-general Datuk Dr Tam Weng Wah and Malaysian Road Safety Research Institute director-general Prof Dr Wong Shaw Voon.

On the death index due to road mishaps in developed nations, Ab Aziz said the death index was 2.0 for every 10,000 registered vehicles in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia.

However, Malaysia, through the police, Transport Ministry and numerous agencies under it, has successfully reduced the death index to 2.90 in 2013 from 4.51 in 2004, although the number of new registered drivers and vehicles had increased.

In this regard, the ministry needed the cooperation of numerous government departments and agencies, car manufacturers, public sector and the people to reduce road mishaps by 50 percent by 2020 via the Road Safety Plan 2014-2020, he said. – Bernama