Strict enforcement and education will reduce accidents

I refer to the letter “Government should privatise road surveillance” ( The Star, April 27).

I humbly beg to be differ. Privatisation has made many things efficient and generated revenue for the government.

I am a firm believer in privatisation, however, the issuing of summons and compounds and collection of such money should be left to government agencies.

Private organisations may be overzealous in carrying out their duties and maybe blinded by making a profit. The current laws and Kejara demerit points system are adequate for dealing with traffic offences. If properly enforced, they can create the necessary discipline amongst the people which will in turn lead to better road safety.

In other countries, traffic offences are swiftly dealt with and bad drivers are also swiftly taken off the road. In Australia, a summons or compound is issued within five working days and must be settled within a stipulated time frame, failing which the police will go to the offender’s house and haul him or her to court.

In contrast, in Malaysia, we have millions of unpaid summonses and offenders get discounts.

In Hawaii and Australia, motorists give way to pedestrians at zebra crossings. My wife, who is in her late 60s, is a slow walker and on many occasions in Sydney, she could not cross the road before the traffic lights changed from green to red.

But the motorists waited patiently for her to reach the pavement on the other side.

On many occasions, we were undecided whether to cross roads without traffic lights or zebra crossings but some motorists stopped and waved us on.

Strict enforcement and education will help discipline motorists to make our roads safer.

Many years ago, my friend from Taiwan told me that whenever they commit a serious traffic offence like speeding and beating traffic lights, apart from paying heavy fines, they have to watch videos of horrific traffic accidents.

In the videos, there are scenes of badly mangled vehicles and families crying at funerals. There are also lectures on the importance of observing traffic regulations. The lectures also highlight the impact of serious traffic accidents on families. My friend said that after watching the film, he was a more disciplined driver.

The enforcement here must also be efficient to instil discipline. Kejara is a good measure to instil discipline in motorists. I hope that traffic school students are educated on road safety as there are far too many accidents involving young motorcyclists.

Maybe horrific accident scenes can be shown to them along with lectures on the consequences of accidents on families.

I believe enforcement should be left to government agencies and that private organisations can help by being involved in improving the efficiency of the system.