NST Leader: Of agencies and road safety
The Transport Ministry has, for the first time, named and shamed bus and heavy vehicle operators who have chalked up numerous summonses for various offences, including speeding, reckless driving and failure to meet safety standards.
The list of infamy was headed by a company with 22,000 summonses, half of which it claims to have settled.
The company, a contractor to the Selangor government, denied that it was responsible for the 22,000 summonses for vehicles it owns.
To which Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook had this to say: "When the vehicle is slapped with a summons, the owner has to take responsibility."
The minister is right. But passing the buck is a bad old Malaysian business habit. But why did the authorities let the bus and lorry operators accumulate such a mountain of summonses? We can only conclude one thing from this: every agency is in solo mode, sans coordination.
The ministry's move to name and shame the errant operators is to keep them in line. But it must not think that by merely doing this miscreant operators would mend their wayward ways. More needs to be done.
Already, they are saying the summonses are issued in the name of drivers who don't inform the operators.
There are two narratives here. One is there are reckless drivers who don't want their employers to know because they may lose the job.
The second, a more prevalent one, is that the operators push their drivers to make more journeys, meaning it is as good as telling them to speed.
This is why so many drivers take drugs to be able to make as many journeys as possible, with minimal breaks.
Such operators shouldn't be spared punitive punishment. "Pay the fines and everything will be okay", is a recipe for future tragedies.
A deep dive is needed. Are the roles of our agencies properly delineated? Is there coordination among them? Are they networked, to use the language of the digital world?
Reengineering for road safety that addresses these issues is needed more than task forces. In the United Kingdom, the police are in charge of enforcing road safety rules, though other agencies work in coordination with them.
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, which enforces rules related to roadworthiness or breaches of operator regulations, is one of them.
Transport for London and local authorities are two more. An interesting another is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), which keeps a central record of drivers and vehicles in the country.
Want to know whether a driver is medically fit to drive or the number of hours a day a driver has been driving? The information is all there on the website.
There is a crying need for a DVLA-like agency here.
Here we have the police, Road Transport Department and the Land and Public Transport Agency.
They sure appear not to be talking to each other. How else can you explain the 22,000 summonses the company had chalked up? The time has come for the reengineering of road safety roles. The Transport Ministry must give it a serious think.
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NST Leader: Of agencies and road safety
The Transport Ministry has, for the first time, named and shamed bus and heavy vehicle operators who have chalked up numerous summonses for various offences, including speeding, reckless driving and failure to meet safety standards. The list of infamy was headed by a company with 22,000 summonses, half of which it claims to have settled. The company, a contractor to the Selangor government, denied that it was responsible for the 22,000 summonses for vehicles it owns. To which Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook had this to say: "When the vehicle is slapped with a summons, the owner has to take responsibility." The minister is right. But passing the buck is a bad old Malaysian business habit. But why did the authorities let the bus and lorry operators accumulate such a mountain of summonses? We can only conclude one thing from this: every agency is in solo mode, sans coordination. The ministry's move to name and shame the errant operators is to keep them in line. But it must not think that by merely doing this miscreant operators would mend their wayward ways. More needs to be done. Already, they are saying the summonses are issued in the name of drivers who don't inform the operators. There are two narratives here. One is there are reckless drivers who don't want their employers to know because they may lose the job. The second, a more prevalent one, is that the operators push their drivers to make more journeys, meaning it is as good as telling them to speed. This is why so many drivers take drugs to be able to make as many journeys as possible, with minimal breaks. Such operators shouldn't be spared punitive punishment. "Pay the fines and everything will be okay", is a recipe for future tragedies. A deep dive is needed. Are the roles of our agencies properly delineated? Is there coordination among them? Are they networked, to use the language of the digital world? Reengineering for road safety that addresses these issues is needed more than task forces. In the United Kingdom, the police are in charge of enforcing road safety rules, though other agencies work in coordination with them. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, which enforces rules related to roadworthiness or breaches of operator regulations, is one of them. Transport for London and local authorities are two more. An interesting another is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), which keeps a central record of drivers and vehicles in the country. Want to know whether a driver is medically fit to drive or the number of hours a day a driver has been driving? The information is all there on the website. There is a crying need for a DVLA-like agency here. Here we have the police, Road Transport Department and the Land and Public Transport Agency. They sure appear not to be talking to each other. How else can you explain the 22,000 summonses the company had chalked up? The time has come for the reengineering of road safety roles. The Transport Ministry must give it a serious think.
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