KUCHING, Dec 18 — The number of fatal road accidents in Sarawak dropped by 16.1 per cent in the first 11 months of this year compared to the same period last year, said state Transport Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin.
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He said police statistics showed that 276 fatal accidents were recorded from January to November this year compared to 329 cases in the corresponding period last year, while cases with serious injuries dropped by 30.9 per cent to 123 cases from 178 last year.
“The total number of road accidents in Sarawak from January to November last year was 19,581 while for the same period this year it was 14,570, a decrease of 5,011 cases or 25.6 per cent,” he said.
The enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) was among the factors that contributed to fewer fatal crashes, he told reporters after jointly launching the Op Selamat Christmas road safety campaign with Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Aidi Ismail here today.
“We began the MCO in March and today we are under the Recovery MCO, and this has reduced the number of vehicles on the road,” he said.
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Lee said his ministry had also established a transportation committee at the state and divisional levels involving all transport enforcement agencies as a measure to further lower the number of road accidents.
He said 381,705 vehicles of various types were registered in the state in the five-year period from 2015 to October this year, representing a 75 per cent increase over the figure for the previous five years.
Meanwhile, Aidi said the police would not set up additional roadblocks during the Op Selamat campaign, which runs from today until Jan 1 next year.
“There will be no extra roadblocks except for existing ones in seven locations at the border, namely in Lundu, Bau, Samarahan and Serian (which have been in place since the MCO),” he said. – BERNAMA