Causes of Road Accidents in Malaysia Essay

Time to time, half a million of Malaysians died because of road accidents and the highest cases of road accidents are caused by the drivers’ behaviour, equipment failure and the road conditions and infrastructure. Because of the road accidents many people have lose their family member or close friend. Besides, the road accidents also may effected to government when they have to repair for the broken infrastructure that caused by the accident like lamp stand, road divider, cleaning people blood from the road, and many more.

It also will give a traffic jam for a while to all drivers. According to Road Transport department research (2002)Accident casualty and deaths by vehicles for Malaysia 2000-2006, the number of road accidents increased to 400 cases and it decreased in 2006 that was only about 600 cases (21,600 cases) had been reported. The first thing that contributes to the reason for the road accidents that happen in Malaysia is the drivers’ behaviour. Humans are always do mistake and not careful. When a problem or unwanted thing happens, they tend to blame somebody or something else for what they have done.

Most people that get an accident believe the other party involved could have done something different to avoid the accident. According to The Royal Malaysian Police, PDRM (2006) report saying that 90% of accidents happen from this reason. Moreover they also mentioned that speeding also has caused quite a number of accidents. Actually, until recently many drivers, especially male driver took the chance of night time in driving in federation and state roads. PDRM, (2006) reported the faster speed of a vehicle, the greater the risk of an accident.

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Speeding, even if the vehicle going five miles per hour over, in the wrong place at the wrong time, it can bring death to somebody. Speeding is also based on the traffic on an area, road conditions, weather and lighting. When driver speeding, they had to risk their lives when had to alert about what condition will they face. Despite all major highways have speed trap, it still cannot prevent drivers to speed and get into trouble, such an accident. In addition, careless driver are another drivers’ behaviour that caused the road accidents.

This factor is the highest factors that drivers get involved in road accidents. Some drivers not only speeding but also drive recklessly, breaking road rules, does not have their vehicle license and beating traffic lights. Moreover, drivers either man or women cannot prevent to be careless driver. The main cause that driver become un careful while driving on roads are talking on a cell phone, eating, falling asleep, tiredness, driving under the influence of alcohol and so on. Because of the small mistake can caused a big problem to others who using the road o involved in the accidents.

However, the most important cause of an accident is aggressive driver behaviour and selfish attitudes. From e-how, described, safe standards are manufactured for modern cars by engineer to minimize the effect of accident. The aggressive driver behaviour and selfish attitudes are the most impossible thing to change. The examples of aggressive driver behaviour and selfish attitudes are aggressive tailgating, failure to signal, and failure to use the right way side. Aggressive tailgating happen when you follow in front of other vehicle too close.

With two vehicle drive too close in high speed, there will be a huge accident if unexpected thing happen on the road, such as animal crossing the road and required front vehicle stop immediately or evade from being crush into the animal. Furthermore, failure to signal when taking left or right road at the corner of the road. When this happen, other vehicle does not know which way you want to go either left or right. Especially heavy vehicles, they do not see where you want to turn if you does not turn on the signal light from your vehicle.

There also a lot of problem happen if driver do not use the right way side, it will make other driver mad. When they angry, they will flash light at the back of your vehicle, because of you drive to slow also in wrong way side of the road. Other example is every festive season, like Chinese New Year, Hari Raya Aidilftri ,Deepavali, Christmas including New Years, Malaysians especially, always excited of going back to their village or better known as ‘balik kampung’. With the excited feeling of going back to their home towns, we can see many of them and their family trying their best to reach home quickly as they can.

Thus they will become selfish and does not care about their safety. Some of them will take express bus to arrive at their home to avoid driving a car at night. But they will be unlucky if they get selfish and careless driver bus attitudes that always take the wrong side of the road which should not used by heavy vehicle just want to reach the destination early. The most the endanger transportation is heavy vehicle like bus and lorry because they are big and easy to smash small vehicle.

Other than that, many selfish motorcyclists who did not followed traffic rules and fastened safety helmets properly. Another factor that listed as one of the causes of road accident is equipment failure of a vehicle. From smartmotorist. com, it state that the most important types of equipment failure are loss of brkes, tire blow outs or tread separation, and suspension failure. Thus, with all exception of the recent rash of Firestone light-truck tire failures, calculated the totals that less than 5% of all motorvehicle accidents have reported equipment failure accounts.

All drivers should drive with perfect car condition. So, before drive any vehicle, they have to do some conformation. They need to check their vehicle to make sure if it safe to drive or not. As example, they must check the condition of water, brake, battery and lamp always be in good condition. There are some drivers that never take care of this problem. They feel it is a small matter to think about the problem and can do it later at any time. They do not care about the safety factor of their car.

Such as they do not change the worn out tires, when it was worn out, the vehicle absolutely cannot grasp tightly the road surface perfectly. So, it will be more dangerous if in rainy day situation, it because the stranglehold between tires and road surface will be more weak than sunny day condition. There are so clear that worn out tires can caused the accident easily. Besides, there are many people cannot accept a fact that almost nine million vehicle in this country involved in road accident because the using of illegal equipment which gain the worst level.

The amount of that vehicle is about 80 percent from the 11 million of the vehicle in our country. The president of Persatuan Pemilik kenderaan Bermotor Malaysia (MOVA), Ahmad Zaki Arifin said that more than half from the driver in our country face the risk to involved in accident and death about this behaviour. Although, the other reason that caused the accident is the road conditions and infrastructure. Usually, the road will become danger in rainy day. It will make the road become more slippery for the vehicle to handle.

In addition, many potholes could endanger motorist (Road Transport Department, 2002). It because, deep hole can make motorist cannot control their vehicle and will cause the accident. It become worst if it involved with the motorcyclist. The un flat surface of road also can make a nightmare for road user. It because, the road user cannot see the hole while driving. Most accidents that involved pothole problem happen during night time, because at that time many driver could not recognize the hole when they driving.

Other than that, insufficient and improper of street light, also caused the accident. Usually, The street lights are hard to find in village area. So, the authorities should take care the village area too. In some place, the street light cannot be used by people because the street light is already broken and not repaired by authorities. In other case, the insufficient of traffic light also lead us to road accident, interstate highways remain safest road because their flow of traffic is in one direction and complete with traffic light.

Many case of accident caused by insufficient of traffic light such as there are no traffic light at one road that always full with vehicle and the effect is it will produce a huge traffic jam. It will become worst when some drivers do not think about other road user and drive in high speed when taking a corner or change to the other side of road. However, roadway identifications sign also play the role to make the road safe for road user. It useful to inform road user to locate and know the road condition, such as the location of landslide, school location, hospital and many more.

If the driver was informed properly the accident will not happen easily. It is possible that motorcyclist also need specific lane for them. They should be separate from other ‘big’ user like car, lorry, bus and other type of transport that bigger than motorcycle. It will make them more safe and secure from unwanted accident. In conclusion, driver behaviour and the equipment failure of a vehicle, as well as the road conditions and infrastructure seem to be causes of road accidents in Malaysia.

To reduce the total amount of road accident, first thing that should we do are change our attitude. In addition, we also need to be alert about our vehicle condition and always check them. The rate of road accident in our country today has become a nightmare for all of us. So, the authorities may need to do a drastic step to overcome this worst problem. They need to use their power to serve the best road conditions and infrastructure for us. We need to realize that our live is most valuable thing. ‘Drive safety and safe our soul’.

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