Ops Sikap 21 – The Malaysian Road Safety Campaign

They say, no news is good news. During the duration of the recent road safety campaign, from 7th February to 21st February 2010, surprisingly the newspapers did not report any major accidents happening across the country.

There were reports of many traffic offences. Even the Director General of J.P.J., whilst going back home to his state of origin was said to have been appalled with the behavior of many motorists.

They were reported to have used the emergency lanes, using road shoulders and overtaking at double lines. Encik Solat, the Director has caught many of these actions on his digital camera. Rest assured, these offenders will be identified soon and hauled to court.

If you have read the daily newspaper, you would surely have observed one thing different pertaining to this year’s Ops Sikap 21 Campaign. To be fair to the authorities which conducted the above campaign this Chinese New Year balik kampung exercise, it seems to have recorded very few if not any major accidents happening.

As I mentioned earlier, no news is good news, they say. So, before proceeding any further, permit me to extend my congratulations once again to those connected with the exercise. Especially the J.P.J., the police authorities, Bomba personnel and civil defense officials, who in one way or another are responsible for its success.

It was therefore not a surprise, that the Star newspaper of the 25th February 2010 edition announced “Fatalities from accidents during the C.N.Y. period have dropped”, says the Transport Minister, Datuk Ong Tee Keat.

First of all, let’s give you some facts and figures how this result has been achieved.

Road death it seems recorded this C.N.Y. campaign dropped from 212 to 201, compared to the same period last year. It’s only minimal. But nonetheless, it’s still a drop anyway.

Secondly, there has also been a 27.8% drop in the daily average of deaths. There was also a dropped of 3% where the number of accidents was concerned.

However, Datuk Ong reiterated, he hoped this was not something temporary. He further said that the authorities would like to see a drop of accidents to zero percent if possible in the coming future.

Thirdly, the daily average of 13 deaths during the month long campaign from January 21st and which continued during the Ops Sikap Campaign 21 was even lower than the usual average of 18 deaths caused by road accidents.

And finally, this number of accidents recorded during the campaign period also dropped to 14,185 this year from 14,618 of last year.

According to the Datuk Ong, the Automated Enforcement System (A.E.S.) will be launched in the near future.

The A.E.S. system is expected to be passed in Parliament soon. What is the A.E.S?

Through this system, digital cameras would be installed at accident prone areas. Expressways and state roads will also not escape surveillance.

The above images will be registered in the J.P.J.’s system and summonses will be issued to offenders.

This system is believed to be able to minimize on graft cases too. All in all, the country looks forward to the implementation of the Automated Enforcement System.