The committee will now address traffic congestion issues as well, which is why the Cabinet had agreed to a proposal from the Transport Ministry to combine the Cabinet Committee on Road Safety with the Cabinet Committee on Traffic Congestion.

Doing this would enable road safety strategies to be developed and reviewed at regular intervals, Transport Minister, Tuan Anthony Loke Siew Fook told The Star.

He said the new “merged” committee will meet three times a year to address road safety and traffic congestion issues in the country.

According to police statistics, a total of 598,635 road accidents were reported nationwide from Jan 1 to Dec 30 last year.

This number is 5.5% higher than the 567,516 road accidents recorded in 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

There has also been a spike in road deaths - from 6,080 in 2022, to 6,433 last year.

To bring down the numbers, Tuan Anthony Loke said, the ministry was working on a number of law reforms to discourage dangerous driving habits, with the aim of introducing the changes this year.

However, these proposed reforms are still in the pipeline and have yet to be finalised.

“We are also in the final stages of implementing e-testing for driving schools which will improve the quality of drivers and integrity of the test,” he added.

Read futher on The Star’s article attached.