Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Our Road Transport Department announced yesterday of the new curriculum they are implementing at the end of the year. I think this move is both welcome and long overdue in a bid to lower road accidents and fatalities. More importantly its about building a civic conscious society where people look after each other's safety interests.Back in 2004, Malaysia was ranked at a daunting 48th in the International Road Accident Fatality Statistics which safest countries were lead by Malta, Netherlands and Sweden respectively. With 21 Per Capita Death Rate to our name is truly a scary thought as compared to the ranked 4th, United Kingdom which has a population of nearly tripled of ours standing at a mere 5.3 Per Capita Death Rate. This goes to show there are plenty of room for improvement.
Director-general Prof Radin Umar Radin Sohadi of Malaysia Institute for Road Safety Research shared that the goal was to reduce accident rates by as much as 50% within five to 10 years. If we are able to achieve it, that would put us somewhere in the low 20's ranking based on the earlier statistics.
I would say its all about instilling caring moral values and the instructors play a huge role as well. If my previous driving instructor of 13yrs ago would to be taken as an example, this plan would have gone down the drain.
Labels: malaysian society
