Suggestions To Improve Road Safety In Malaysia to the New Minister of Transport (Malaysia)

Most of the road accidents were attributed to motorcyclists with 92 cases reported, which is equivalent to 61% of the 150 accidents recorded.

To offset the upward trend in fatalities, an integrated road safety program was introduced to both pre-
vent and reduce future traffic accidents as well as to reduce injuries during and after accidents. Strategies were categorised into exposure control, crash prevention, crash reduction, behaviour modification, injury control and post injury programs.  Among the new initiatives were:
• The National Accident Database System
• The Five Stages Road Safety Auditing
• The National Blackspot Programs
• Road Safety Research and Evaluation
• Conspicuity Initiatives for Motorcycles
• National Targeted Road Safety Campaign
• Revision of the Road Transport Act (Revision 1999)
• Integrated Enforcement
• New Helmet Standard MS1-1996
• New Children's Motorcycle Helmet Initiative

Updates of Road Safety Status in Malaysia (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275552593_Updates_of_Road_Safety_Status_in_Malaysia [accessed May 22 2018].

The National Consumers Complaints Centre (NCCC) reports millions of Ringgit of potential loss to consumers in the auto sector. Consumer complaints in the auto-sector involved more than RM 135 million (value of products – cars / workshop services) from 2010 to 2013.

Annually since 2010 refunds and warranty complaints often constitute about a quarter of the number of complaints received followed by faulty new vehicles. More than half of the complaints against auto workshops are related to the quality of repairs (delays and problems not rectified).

Against the backdrop of rising costs of living, rising prices of houses as well as private vehicles, purchasing properties often leave Malaysians with a sour after-taste. Other than personal loans, car loans make young workers vulnerable to bankruptcy and contribute to high levels of household debt in Malaysia. Young people in Malaysia tend to use half of their monthly income to maintain a car.

A spate of safety recalls in the private vehicle sector such as the fatal air bag deployment mechanism, unintended acceleration and faulty ignition cases has eroded public confidence in vehicle safety.

Performance claims have been fraudulent evident from the defeat device used by Volkswagen. Despite many international recalls and even the death of a Malaysian in Sibu,Sarawak due to faulty airbags, we still lack a competent authority similar to the US NHTSA to oversee the safety and performance of road vehicles. There is no authority to carry out essential protocols such as market surveillance on vehicle
parts, protective and safety equipment, crash tests and mandatory New Car Assessment (NCAP) ratings.

There are limitation among labs and testing facilities to support the need for market surveillance and assessment of energy efficient vehicle (EEV) performance.With relatively poor public transport connectivity and reliability, owning a private vehicle has become almost essential to many Malaysians.

The Malaysian Automotive Association reported that more than 600,000 new cars hit the road in Malaysia last year and the same number or more may be repeated this year and even next year – further clogging road systems and parking lots. The government needs to reform the auto-sector regulatory system and infrastructure by establishing a (new) vehicle safety competent authority similar to the US NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration).
The reform
should minimise redundancies, increase accountability and transparency (among industry and regulators) and efficiency. The regulatory reform must incorporate strong warranty laws similar to those used in Singapore and the United States. The implementation of a warranty law may require amendments to the Hire Purchase Act and Road Transport Act among others. It should also call for mandatory compliance with UNECE standards on safety performance of vehicles for front and side impacts (UN Regulations Nos. 94 and 95); pedestrian safety (UN Regulation No. 127) and safety of electric vehicles and their high-voltage batteries (UN Regulation No. 100).

The laws must call for mandatory display of the NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) rating for all new cars on sale in Malaysia to assist consumers in making informed choice.The (new) central agency proposed above must have system such as the APEC Product Safety Incidents Information Sharing System where consumers can easily report incidents – especially safety incidents.

Warranty laws are useful to protect consumers against unfair business practices in any product or service sector. Thus in the US and Singapore it is also applies to a wide range of consumer products and services. Buyers of big ticket items such as furniture, electrical appliances and telecommunications devices will find warranty laws very useful to protect them against poor quality products and repair services.

Therefore Standards Users strongly recommends that the warranty laws also apply to all general consumer products – furniture, appliances , devices etc. A strong Consumer Protection Body is required to implement these laws. Current agency set up under the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (KPDNKK) does not help with the implementation of such laws. We envisage a centralised consumer affairs agency set up under the Prime Minister Department will help in providing better consumer protection. The UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection provides adequate information on role of governments when it comes to consumer protection, thus should be referred by the consumer affair agency.

In the past the blogger reviewed private vehicle safety and recalls in Malaysia and came up with the following recommendations:

1. The  setup  of  a  (new)  vehicle  safety  competent  authority  similar  to  the  US NHTSA  (National  Highway  Transportation  Safety  Administration)  with  a   range  of authority, spanning from  the safety and performance of any vehicle (private, commercial and public) to the safety of road users.
2. Reform of the road vehicle safety and performance regulatory infrastructure is URGENTLY needed, to address all related regulations, legal infrastructure, policies and roles of all agencies in order to minimise redundancies and clutter, improve transparency, accountability, predictability and efficiency in the  regulatory  system  of  road  vehicles.  In  the  US,  the  NHTSA  also  has  jurisdiction  over  the  safety  of  public  road  vehicles  such  as  buses  and  trains. 
3. The URGENT implementation of a strict and clear warranty law (Lemon Law)for the auto-sector is needed. This may lead to amendments of other Actsand Regulations and eventually covering all consumer products (especially household appliances, furniture and hi-tech gadgets/ devices)
4. Disclosure of the NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) rating to buyersof new vehicles must be made mandatory.
5. Mandatory compliance with UNECE Standards (enforced by the new competent authority similar to the US NHTSA) on:
   i.  The safety performance of vehicles for front and side impacts (UN Regulations Nos. 94 and 95)
   ii.   Pedestrian safety (UN Regulation No. 127)
   iii.  The safety of electric vehicles and their high-voltage batteries (UN Regulation No. 100)
6. The establishment of an independent Consumer Product Safety Commissionby the Prime Minister’s Department or an extension of the powers of the Malaysian Competition Commission – under the PM’s Department. Product safety regulations are implemented by competent authorities and require sound technical knowledge about product safety and risk assessment. Current structure under the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (KPDNKK) is inadequate to fulfil consumer protection needs according to the UNGCP.
7. Use of the UN’s Guidelines for Consumer Protection in order to review, assess  and  improve  consumer  protection,  domestic  trade  and  environmental  well-being in Malaysia.
8. The  implementation  of  a  mandatory  safety  incident  reporting  system  and  recall mechanism (see Australia’s product www.recalls.gov.au). A voluntary incident reporting system already exists  – The APEC Product Safety Incidents Information Sharing System (www.psiiss.net)
9. The relevant authorities and business can apply international best practices in managing recalls effectively. One such practice exists in the ISO 10390:2013 – Consumer Product Recall – Guidelines for Suppliers.