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Tuesday May 13, 2008 MYT 6:29:21 PM

Road safety ads to be given new lease of life

By IZATUN SHARI


PETALING JAYA: Road safety campaign advertisements will be reviewed to ensure the effectiveness of the campaign.

Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat said road safety advertisements should be given a facelift to ensure its effectiveness.

"For instance, conventional road advertisements focus a lot on gruesome scenes. If possible, we want to explore different ways of presenting them, including radio advertisements," he told reporters Tuesday after launching a guidebook, The Orange Book which is a project by The Otomotif College here.

On whether all gruesome advertisements would be replaced, he said: "The relevant ones will still be used. What's more important is that the advertisements are effective and convincing.

"They should be able to touch the heart and soul of the people rather than the hardsell aspect of it. Like the elections, if we put up an advertisement Undilah Ong Tee Keat, nobody would even look at it."

Ong said the ministry needed to scrutinise the effectiveness of the campaign by soliciting feedback from the ground in view of the rising number of road accidents and fatalities.

"I think it is timely that we change our format and methods," he said adding that the total number of road accidents last went up by 6.5% to 363,319 from 341,232 in 2006 while there was only a slight reduction in the number of fatalities to 6,282 cases last year from 6,287 in the previous year.

So far, he said the preventive measures focused on advertisements and a guidebook.

"By and large, road safety programmes need to be conducted more extensively in the sense that we need to involve the local community. Participation at grassroots level is of utmost importance.

"I don't believe in mere ceremonies. There's no point in getting VIPs to launch ceremonies to promote road safety initiatives where only representatives of relevant committees are present but the people are not involved. It is the effectiveness of the programmes which is important not the grandeur. We need to be more result-oriented."

Ong said the ministry also wanted to ensure that motorcyclists who were most vulnerable to road fatalities be given emphasis in the campaign.

"Motorcyclists are more exposed to road hazards. It is imperative for us to focus on this group in our campaign on the ground," he said adding that the Road Safety Depertament and the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety should collaborate with relevant ministries and departments to ensure the effectiveness of the campaign.

Ong also said the Orange Book was indeed a commendable social initiative by the college to create awareness on the campaign.

The 272-page guidebook, which is presented in English, Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese, will be given free to motorists.

It has useful information on safe driving, safety and precautions, breakdowns, emergencies while driving, basic Do It Yourself and car care and first aid along with emergency phone numbers, places to stay, eat and visit.

It will be distributed at strategic locations prior to school holidays and major festive holidays and to libraries of secondary schools within the country in conjunction with talks and briefings on road safety for school children.

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