Published: Sunday May 20, 2012 MYT 5:40:00 PM

Don't compare accident rate with other countries, says Kong

PORT KLANG: The high rate of accidents in the country should not be compared with other countries, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha.

He said each year, more than 1.3 million motorists throughout the world died from road accidents.

"In countries like China and India, more than 100,000 people die each year on the roads while in the United States and Indonesia, more than 33,000 people are killed yearly in road accidents.

"So, accidents are not limited to our country only. Even though there are parties who say the country has the highest road accident rate, accidents can occur anywhere," he told reporters after launching a road safety campaign here.

Kong said last year, 6,877 motorists in the country died in road accidents and of the number, more than 60% were motorcyclists and pillion riders.

"In any country, motorcyclists are the largest contributors of road accidents. In France, only 2% of the vehicles were motorcycles yet they contributed 30% of the road accident fatalities in that country.

"In our country, about 40% of the road users are motorcyclists and it contributed about 60% of the road accident deaths," he said.

Therefore, Kong said, support from all parties was needed to assist the government in reducing the rate of road accidents in the country, especially those involving motorcyclists.

He said the government had held various road safety campaigns including organising road safety education in primary schools for several years.

"This year, the same programme will start at secondary schools and it has helped create awareness among the school children," he said. - Bernama

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