KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia wants to make sure that 75% of its roads are as safe as the ones in developed countries.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai (pic) said this while noting that 6,706 people had died on the roads last year, adding that more needed to be done before it gets worse.
“My ministry together with other stakeholders is committed to elevating the standards of 75% of Malaysia’s road infrastructure to at least a three-star performance throughout high volume road networks by the year 2020,” he said at Menara Shell on Friday.
Liow was referring to an international safety rating under the International Road Assessment Programme (IRAP), which looks at how safe roads are.
There is more than 144,000km of roads in Malaysia.
IRAP is a non-profit group active in over 70 countries that looks at how safe roads are, giving them star ratings while offering tools to make them safer.
Roads that have five-star ratings are the safest, while those ranked at one star are not.
IRAP chief executive Rob Mcinerney said in a speech that each time a road’s rating went up by one star, the level of possible death and injury on it could be halved.
In his speech, Liow said that under IRAP protocols, a four-star road can even be downgraded to a one-star if drivers on it have poor driving behavior.
He added that road accidents cost the country RM8.63bil last year.
Previous reports said this amount could be broken down into medical costs, insurance and car repairs.
Official statistics showed that 6,706 people were killed in 489,606 accidents in 2015, at an average of 18 deaths a day.
In 2014, 6,674 Malaysians died on the road with 476,196 accidents recorded.
Keyword: Malaysia committed to making roads safer, says Liow