Higher traffic fines won’t reduce traffic offences, says consultant
Motorists must feel they have a high chance of being caught or may lose their licences if police want to reduce number of offenders, says road safety expert.
PETALING JAYA: An increase in fines will not necessarily result in fewer offences because the perception that one can escape detection or enforcement is still high among Malaysian motorists.
Commenting on a suggestion by Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar today that the maximum fine for traffic offences be raised to reduce the accident rate, road safety consultant Karen Goonting warned that this might not necessarily have the desired result.
“Overseas studies have shown that increasing fines do not necessarily reduce the number of offences as the economic factor doesn’t address the many reasons road users still flout the law.”
Karen said the problem in Malaysia was that the perception of getting caught was low, unlike in Western countries.
“What’s needed is a system where traffic offenders will promptly and for certain feel the consequences if they commit an offence.
“They must feel there is a high likelihood of getting a traffic summons and there is a high possibility of their driving licences being suspended or revoked if they don’t pay up or go for rehabilitation or continue to drive with suspended or revoked licences.”
She said the government tried to do this with the Kejara demerit point system but there were many bugs in the system that needed to be fixed, said Karen, a former research fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros).
Earlier today, Bernama had reported that Khalid felt a higher fine would teach motorists to be more careful when driving.
Khalid said the current maximum fine of RM300 did not appear to be a sufficient deterrent, with people driving on the emergency lane and contributing to the high number of fatal accidents over the Chinese New Year period.
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There were 59,984 accidents involving cars and 5,899 crashes involving motorcycles in 2014.