Report: Negligence to blame for 13,516 car crash deaths from 2021 to August 2023, says Bukit Aman
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 — A total of 250,727 of the 1.2 million accidents that occurred nationwide throughout 2021 to August this year and claimed 13,516 lives were due to driver negligence.
Among the primary causes were tailgating, fatigue, carelessness, mobile phone use and “daydreaming”.
Of the 13,516 deaths recorded, as many as 4,247 accidents occurred in 2021, followed by 5,671 in 2022, while 3,598 cases were registered in the first eight months of this year.
Speaking to Utusan Malaysia, Bukit Aman’s Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department (JSPT) director, Datuk Seri Mat Kassim Karim, said that according to Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) records, tailgating led to the most accidents, at 81,136 cases.
“A total of 59,032 more accidents was caused by drivers not focusing on the road or failing to notice other vehicles, some of which coincided with mobile phone use.
“In addition, a total of 46,786 accidents occurred when drivers or motorcyclists were careless when navigating a junction,” Mat Kassim said.
He said out of the total number of accidents, 33,168 cases occurred when the driver was attempting to overtake another vehicle, while another 30,605 cases were due to drivers being careless or drowsy, or daydreaming.
According to Mat Kassim, other common causes of accidents were drivers speeding, running traffic lights, and going against the designated traffic flow, as well as single-vehicle crashes.
“From 2021 to last August, a total of 1.2 million accidents were recorded, the highest number occurred in 2022 with a total of 545,588 cases.
“For 2021, a total of 370,286 accidents were recorded in addition to 344,207 cases from January to August,” he said.
He said a total of 13,516 deaths were recorded throughout 2021 to August this year, which is 4,247 cases in 2021, 5,671 in 2022 and as many as 3,598 cases in 2023 to date.
Mat Kassim said that urban roads were identified as having the highest frequency of accidents where a total of 163,405 cases were reported.
“A total of 61,977 cases of accidents occurred on state roads, followed by federal roads (45,707 cases), highways (37,803 cases) and other roads (35,315 cases),” he said.
Mat Kassim added that based on statistics, as many as 4,306 cases were reported in 2022 of victims suffering serious injuries, followed by 2021 (3,480 cases) and this year (1,893 cases).
He said, in 2022, there were 29,730 cases of minor injuries followed by 15,050 cases in 2021 and 18,378 cases this year.
