DENGKIL, Jan 17 — A total of 2,000 Road Transport Department (JPJ) enforcement officers will be deployed in the integrated operations and road safety campaign in conjunction with the Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the JPJ personnel would travel on express buses as passengers to carry out the enforcement activities, in addition to monitoring through enforcement stations at 14 key locations along highways nationwide throughout the operations, which will begin from January 18 to January 27 nationwide,
He said during the operations, there will be seven major traffic offences that are non-compoundable, meaning that the offenders will be issued with a compound fine but will be directly referred to court.
“The seven major offences are cutting queues, overtaking on double lines, disobeying the red light signal, driving over the speed limit, using mobile phones while driving, not wearing a seat belt or helmet, and driving on the emergency lane,” Loke said.
He was speaking at the launch of the Integrated Ops and Road Safety Campaign in conjunction with the upcoming CNY celebration here today.
Loke said goods vehicles will be banned from using the roads two days before CNY on January 20 and 21 and two days after, on January 24 and January 25, to reduce traffic congestion.
“This ban is aimed to avoid risks of road accidents due to mixed traffic flow between heavy vehicles and light vehicles on the road and on highways,” he said.
As for accident statistics during the same period last year, Loke said a total of 11,325 road accidents with 119 deaths were recorded.
“The number was quite worrying. In my opinion, road safety education among the people of this country has not yet reached the highest level which we can be proud of,” he said.
— Bernama
