Launch of revised road safety education module timely – Lee
SIBU: The launch of the National Revised Road Safety Education Module for Primary Schools recently is timely as it could help nurture the culture of road safety amongst the young generation.
In lauding the move, National Road Safety Council member Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said he believes efforts to instil road safety culture among students would help to produce a young generation who would be courteous and responsible when they start driving or riding their own vehicles in the future.
He highlighted that such efforts are very important because on average, 19 lives are lost to road accidents daily. Research shows that driving habit and human mistakes contributed to over 80 per cent of accidents.
“In the past 10 years, 67,882 people were killed on the road. Young people between 16 to 25 years old recorded the highest fatalities with more than 2,000 killed on the road each year.
“Although the number of fatal road accidents has slightly dropped by 6.8 per cent to 6,284 last year compared to 6,740 in 2017, it still contributed to losses of about RM9 billion,” Lee said in a media statement yesterday.
Therefore, educating students on road safety is the best way to inculcate more courteous, thoughtful and law-abiding road behavior to complement efforts by the authorities and highway operators to reduce road accidents, he stressed.
“In Japan for example, schoolchildren are taught to bow as a show of respect to drivers who stopped their vehicles for them to cross the road. Indirectly, it teaches respect for others and when they grow up, they would not drive or ride recklessly and endanger lives of road users,” he elaborated.
Adding on, he said the road safety module, developed through smart partnership between the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Transport, was formally implemented in all primary schools beginning this year.