A total of 915,874 road accidents were recorded for the period of 2021 to 2022 according to the ministry of transport, The Star has reported.

From this total, 545,588 of these accidents with 6,080 deaths (1.1%) occurred last year, while 370,286 accidents occurred in 2021, with 4,539 deaths (1.23%), said the minister of transport Anthony Loke Siew Fook.

“A Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) study found that road accidents were mainly caused by human behaviour, followed by the design, condition of road infrastructure and vehicles’ condition. Miros and the Road Transport Department (JPJ) are continously running campaigns and enforcement measures to promote safe driving etiquette,” Loke said.

The response by Loke in a written parliamentary reply was to Datuk Adnan Abu Hassan (BN-Kuala Pilah), who asked the transport minister to state the main cause of fatal road accidents alongside short, medium and long-term plans to resolve the issue.

To this end, the transport ministry had launched the Malaysia Road Safety Plan 2022-2030 in January 2022 to tackle the issue of road accidents.

“The goal is to reduce the number of road accidents by 50% come 2030. Various programmes and strategies involving stakeholders from local communities and the private sector have also been planned,” the transport minister said.

Both passive and active strategies are also taken in order to increase the safety standards of vehicles, he said. These are through the creation of a vehicle research and safety test centre, and [by] improving the standards and mechanism used to evaluate [the safety of a vehicle],” Loke said, adding that other measures are also being taken.