Warning to traffic offenders
Liow: Expect suspensions and cancellation of licences with Awas
PETALING JAYA: The new Automated Awareness Safety System (Awas) which will see the suspension and even cancellation of driving licences of drivers who flout traffic rules is expected to begin this April.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the Road Transport Department (JPJ) had upgraded its computer system to handle Awas – an integration of the Automated Enforcement System (AES) using cameras and the Kejara Demerit Points System to weed out habitual traffic offenders.
“The upgrading of the system will take two to three months to complete. And we should be able to complete the integration from Kejara to JPJ’s mainframe and implement the demerit system,” he told reporters after launching the national level 2017 Chinese New Year road safety campaign here yesterday.
Besides facing a RM150 fine under AES, drivers could have their driving licence suspended under Awas for overtaking at the double lines, running the red light, using the emergency lane and speeding.
At present, Liow said that there are currently 14 AES cameras with another seven to be installed.
Liow announced that speed limits will be reduced by 10kph for all federal and state roads during the Chinese New Year Ops Bersepadu traffic operations.
Liow said the speed limits would be lowered to 80kph for federal roads and 70kph for state roads during the operations from Jan 21 to Feb 5.
He added heavy vehicles would be prohibited from using the highways on Jan 26, 27, 31 and Feb 1.
He said these were among the efforts undertaken to reduce road accidents that had seen an increase from 521,446 accidents last year compared to 489,606 in 2015.
Liow said 6,193 fatal road acci- dents were recorded in 2015. This rose to 6,570 cases last year.
“The number of deaths rose to 7,152 deaths in 2016 compared to 6,706 two years ago.
“This is very worrying. Statistics will remain statistics if we all don’t do our part to reduce the number of accidents,” he added.
Liow said human error accounted for 80.6% of road accidents while 62.7% of fatal accidents involved motorcyclists.
He said that integrated enforcement would be carried out under Ops Bersepadu during the Chinese New Year festive period.
The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety (Miros) would conduct an assessment of the effectiveness of the operation during the festive season.