In Penang recently, 5 persons died and two injured in an accident involving illegal racing by Mat Rempits. Shahrim Tamrin, a former board member of the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research, cited police data that put the deaths in fatal accidents caused by Mat Rempits at 12,000 since 2009. Such a large number of deaths is a sad waste of our youthful talent and human resources.
Wee Ka Siong is unfit to be a Transport Minister if he cannot see that the huge disparity between fatal accidents by Mat Rempits racing illegally on our highways and deaths caused by drunk driving, requires immediate action by Wee to impose the same penalties on drunk driving to be equally enforced on Mat Rempits.
Clearly Mat Rempits are a menace to public safety and have endangered both the lives and livelihood of innocent motorists. Normally, such a large number of deaths would require immediate action by any responsible and competent Transport Minister. Unfortunately, Wee does not appear to have the same political will to overcome the dangerous Mat Rempits that he possesses in dealing with drunk driving.
Data provided by the police show that the number of road users involved in DUI or “driving under the influence” of alcohol and drugs was 212 in 2020, 39 in 2019, 191 (2018), 212 (2017), and 461 (2016). Figures from the World Health Organisation and a global road safety report from December 2018 shows that less than 1% of traffic-related deaths in Malaysia are linked to alcohol, one of the lowest rates of road fatalities in the world.
Compare the large 12,000 deaths in fatal accidents related to Mat Rempits with drunk driving. Malaysian Police data showed that since 2014, DUI contributed to the lowest percentage of deaths from the total number of road fatalities with 2.89% in 2014, 3.41% (2015), 3.31% (2016), 0.86% (2017), and 0.85% (2018). Only 69 cases of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs on Malaysian roads were attributed to fatal crashes between 2011 and July 2021.
Wee had trumpeted the increased penalties of death caused by reckless or dangerous driving under Section 41 of the Road Transport Act 1987 to a fine of RM50,000 and/or a five to 10 year jail sentence. Section 44 imposed harsher penalties for causing death by those driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs to a fine of between RM50,000 to RM100,000 and a minimum of 10 years /or a maximum of 15 years in jail for the first offence.
The penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs to the extent of causing injury without death have been increased to RM50,000 and/or a seven to 10 year jail term. Those driving while intoxicated or on drugs face a minimum fine of RM1,000 (all the way up to RM5,000) and/or a jail term below two years.
Wee should impose the same punishment on illegal Mat Rempit racers as that meted out on drunk driving, when the Mat Rempits are a clear and present danger to innocent motorists on public roads and highways. Is Wee’s forceful action against drunk driving due to the dictates of his political masters but inaction against Mat Rempits, which is wanted not by his political masters but by the ordinary rakyat?