Enforce Speed Limits To Protect Road Users - Expert

According to a road safety expert, enforcing speed restrictions helps protect drivers in urban and suburban regions with lots of pedestrian traffic.

The World Health Organization reports that with 7,181 fatalities in 2020, traffic accidents were Malaysia's sixth leading cause of mortality.

According to Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah, speed worsens collisions, whether they include cars or more vulnerable road users like children and pedestrians.

"Speed is fatal. That is true. Therefore, it is important to protect vulnerable road users, particularly in home and school zones. Pedestrians should be the primary users of the roads in a livable city. The reasoning and philosophy are those, he told the Sun.

The recommended speed in residential zones, according to Ahmad Farhan, who is also a professor of transport engineering at Universiti Sains Malaysia, is 30 kph.

Road accidents can be prevented. The 30 kph speed limit was established based on the speed at which a pedestrian would only suffer serious injuries upon contact and have a good chance of surviving.

"Therefore, it's desirable that no vehicle travels faster than 30 kph in (areas with lots of pedestrians). This can facilitate the creation of a space where people can move about without fear of injury.

He stated that some of the obstacles that must be solved to safeguard vulnerable road users are changing the mindsets of drivers who speed and having the motivation to enforce speed restrictions.

On March 20, Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias, the deputy federal territories minister at the time, announced that Kuala Lumpur City Hall would receive the request the next month to reduce the speed limit for vehicles from 50 kph to 30 kph in a number of areas in the city centre.

Data gathering and analysis will be done. The locations included by the Miros study will be those where the posted speed restrictions are 60 and 40 kilometres per hour.

At a high-level conference of the United Nations on July 30, former transport minister Datuk Seri Dr. Wee Ka Siong stated that Malaysia aims to reduce traffic fatalities by 50% by 2030.