Safe roads: Lokman (right) overseeing a JPJ officer conducting checks during the operation in Melaka.
MELAKA: Foreigners driving illegally on Malaysians roads are a serious problem and the Road Transport Department (JPJ) says it is clamping down on them.
JPJ senior enforcement director Datuk Lokman Jamaan said his enforcement teams’ focus is to look out for such foreigners during checks at roadblocks.
“Foreigners with international driving licence are allowed on our roads but we are concerned about those without valid documents,” he said after overseeing a special operation focused on motorcyclists along the Alor Gajah-Melaka Tengah-Jasin Highway (AMJ) at Bertam Malim here on Wednesday night.
On Aug 10, Melaka JPJ director Muhammad Firdaus Shariff said the high number of Rohingyas riding or driving vehicles here without a valid licence was alarming.
He said 63 individuals from the community had their vehicles confiscated for being on the road without a licence from the start of this year to July.
Lokman said JPJ will obtain full statistics on foreigners without a valid licence at the end of the special operation on motorcycles, which will run from Sept 1 till Sept 30.
“I will reveal the actual figure on this at the end of this operation,” he said.
He said JPJ nationwide inspected 140,544 motorcycles during the operation from Sept 1 to Sept 13 and 64, 295 notices were issued for various offences.
Lokman noted 46% of the motorcyclists inspected during the operation had failed to comply with road safety regulations.
He said 24,459 of the motorcyclists had no insurance coverage, 19,928 did not have a valid driving licence and 4,061 had run the traffic lights.
Lokman said that 3,111 motorcycles were also seized during the operation.
“Our main objective in holding the operation was to create road safety awareness and reduce the number of deaths among motorcyclists,” he added.
Lokman said 65 JPJ officers and personnel from here were involved in Wednesday’s operation, while 380 motorcycles were inspected with a total of 33 bikes confiscated.
