SERDANG: The 30kph school zone speed limit should be extended beyond the nearby vicinity, including housing areas, to ensure the safety and well-being of children, says Prof Dr Kulanthayan KC Mani (pic) of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).
The road safety expert said this was because children are confined to limitations, making them the most vulnerable group of people on the roads.
The 30kph speed limit was an assured number should an accident occur, he said.
“Why 30kph? This is because when an accident happens, the amount of force that one could withstand is only up to that number.
“If it goes above that number, even if it was 50kph, we may face death. As such, we should maintain the speed limit to the recommended number,” he said yesterday.
In Malaysia, the speed limit of 30kph is mandatory in school zones.
Earlier, Prof Kulanthayan presented his inaugural lecture series on “Children Safety on the Road: Public Health Vaccines” at UPM, which was attended by relevant stakeholders and foreign dignitaries.
He also revealed that in 2022, about 1,000 out of the 6,080 fatalities in road crash statistics in Malaysia involved children. There were 545,588 road crash cases recorded last year.
These numbers, he said, were not only an average number but something that was reflective throughout a decade.
The majority of the children, who were under the age of 18, were involved in collisions with motorcycles, cars, and even pedestrians, he added.
“It is high time we create an environment that is safe for our children, who are bound by limitations and require assistance from adults.
“Children do not possess the capacity to make coherent decisions that ensure their safety, especially while interacting with other vehicles on the roads,” he said.
In order to tackle road safety issues, the public should also play their role effectively instead of laying the responsibility on the shoulders of the government, he added.
A collaborative effort among multiple agencies, industry players, councils, associations, and NGOs must exist to see a significant reduction in the number of road accidents and deaths, Prof Kulanthayan pointed out.
In terms of child car seats, he said although the law has been passed and gazetted, it is only awaiting implementation, but this should not be a reason for the people not to adopt the safety product themselves.
“We already know the car seat is a safe product that works; as such, we have to move towards the new norm of it becoming part of our daily lives. But this norm should not only be confined to car seats but other safety products as well, including helmets for motorcycles or bicycles.
“We don’t have to wait until the law is enforced; we know it can protect, so we need to put it into practice.
“Road safety is a public issue. We must no longer blame others but instead see what we can do to change the system,” he said.
In 2022, a total of 16,435,489 cars and 16,205,383 motorcycles were registered in the country. The state with the highest number of road crash incidents is Selangor, with 156,815, followed by Johor (76,028), the Federal Territory (64,337), Perak (48,694), and Penang (40,281).
Meanwhile, Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Hasbi Habibollah told the Dewan Rakyat that an average of one child died in a road accident every day between 2011 and 2020.
He said the statistics for the 10-year period were received from the Royal Malaysia Police and analysed by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros), which found that 7.25% of fatalities involved children between ages 0 and 15 years.
