MA

UPDATES OF ROAD SAFETY STATUS IN MALAYSIA
Radin UMAR R.S.
Professor Ir. Dr., Road Safety Research Centre, Universiti Putra Malaysia(Received January 18, 2005)

1. INTRODUCTION
Since the last decade, Malaysia has experienced aremarkable period of economic expansion and growth inpopulation, economy, industrialisation and motorisation.
The population increased from 19.5 to 25.6 million at anaverage growth rate of about 3% per year. During thesame period, the total length of paved roads increased
from 60,734 to about 71,814 kilometres while registeredvehicles increased from 7,210,089 to 13,878,000 vehicles
in 2004 (Table 1). Over a span of 10 years, ownershipincreased accordingly from 2.7 persons per vehicle in1994 to 1.9 persons per vehicle in 2004, though almost
half are motorcyclists.
The increase in population and motorisation led toa consequent increase in the number of road traffic accidents. From 148,801 cases in 1994 (Table 1), the number doubled to a total of 326,817 cases in 2004. The
number of fatalities (death within 30 days after an accident) however, increased at a much slower rate from5,159 in 1994 to 6,223 in 2004. Note that the upward
trend of fatalities dropped in 1997 after consistently positive growth since 1986.

2. NATIONAL SAFETY TARGET AND INTERVENTIONSIn 1995, the Road Safety Research Centre, atUniversiti Putra Malaysia was mandated with the task ofreviewing the earlier national safety target. The outcomeof the research1 was the statistical model which predicted
some 9,127 deaths in the year 2000 if traffic exposure
continued to increase at the projected rate (Figure 1).
To offset the upward trend in fatalities, an integrated road safety program was introduced to both prevent and reduce future traffic accidents as well as toreduce injuries during and after accidents. Strategies werecategorised into exposure control, crash prevention, crash
reduction, behaviour modification, injury control and post
injury programs. Among the new initiatives were:• The National Accident Database System• The Five Stages Road Safety Auditing• The National Blackspot Programs• Road Safety Research and Evaluation• Conspicuity Initiatives for Motorcycles• National Targeted Road Safety Campaign• Revision of the Road Transport Act (Revision 1999)• Integrated Enforcement• New Helmet Standard MS1-1996• New Children's Motorcycle Helmet Initiative
Road safety research and scientifically driven initiatives have been recognised as the critical success factors of the safety investments in Malaysia. In addition, a
new road safety department was recently set up to specifically plan, coordinate, implement and evaluate thesafety interventions in the country.

Table 1 General road accident statistics in Malaysia
Year

1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004

Population

19,494,000
20,096,700
21,169,000
21,665,600
22,679,600
22,711,900
23,200,000
23,263,600
23,263,600
25,048,300
25,600,000

VehiclesRoad

Number ofRegistered

Length (Km)

Accidents

Death

Serious

SlightTotal

7,210,089
6,802,375
7,686,684
8,550,469
9,141,357
9,929,951
10,589,804
11,302,545
12,068,144
12,868,934
13,764,837

60,73460,73460,734
63,382
63,38264,981
64,981
64,981
64,981
71,81471,814

148,801
162,491
189,109
215,632
211,037
223,166
250,417265,175
279,237
298,651
326,817

5,159
5,712
6,304
6,302
5,740
5,794
6,035
5,849
5,887
6,286
6,223

13,387
15,313
14,218
14,105
12,06810,366
9,773
8,680
8,424
9,040
9,234

29,957
31,127
32,95336,13737,89636,77734,24635,94435,171
37,41538,62448,50352,15253,47556,57455,78452,93750,05450,47349,482
52,74154,081106 • IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005

Casualties

10Forecast(9,127)

Deaths (×1000)

8Reduction
30%

6Actual Death
Target(6,389)

42
Death = 2289 {exp0.00007.Vehicle. Population.Road} {exp0.2073 Data Collection System}
01972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982 1984
1986 1988
1990 1992 1994
1996 1998
2000
1973
1975
1977
1979
1981
1983
1985 19871989
1991 1993 1995
1997 1999

Year

Fig.1 Fatality model and safety target in Malaysia

3. OVERALL IMPACT OF SAFETY INITIATIVESIN MALAYSIA
An analysis on the impact of the safety interventions2 shows that the safety intervention measures wereable to significantly reduce (p<0.05) traffic deaths andoffset the upward fatality trend in Malaysia (Figure 2).

Following this positive trend, new safety targets havebeen established based on deaths per 10,000 vehicles,
100,000 population and billion vehicle-kilometers traveled. By the year 2010 and 2020 for example, Malaysiais benchmarking against the world’s best to reduce her
fatality rate to less than 3.0 and 2.0 deaths per 10,000 vehicles respectively. This is achievable as the fatality in-Safety Program Starts

16000

Original Trend
14000
12000

New Trend

8000
6000
4000
2000

1973
1975
1977
1979
1980
1983
1985
1987
1989
1990
1993
1995
1997
1999
2000
2003
2005
2007
2009

71

0

19

Fatality

10000

YearFig.2 Predictive model of yearly traffic deaths
IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005 •107

12Safety Intervention

Fatality Rate(Deaths/10,000 vehicles)

108Pre-Intervention Trend

64Intervention Trend

201984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

YearFig.3 Fatalities per 10,000 vehicles

dex per 10,000 vehicles reduced at a much faster rate(Figure 3) in the last few years especially after the safety
interventions. With the recent endorsement of the National Road Safety Blueprint 2001-2010, strategic activities have prioritized and key performance indicators havebeen established. They are monitored regularly by theRoad Safety Department Malaysia and will be regularly
reported to the Cabinet Committee on Road Safety chairedby the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

108 • IATSS RESEARCH Vol.29 No.1, 2005

REFERENCES
1. Radin Umar R.S. Fatality Models for Malaysia: Towards Year 2000.
“Pertanika Journal Science and Technology” 6(2): pp.1-13. (1998).
2. Law T.H. and Radin Umar R.S. The Malaysian Government’s Road
Accident Death Reduction Target for Year 2010. “IATSS RESEARCH”
29(1). (2005).