School boys riding a motorcycle from SAS school without a safety helmet.
Like most days, we see motorcycle riders in various locations riding a motorcycle and ignoring traffic lights, ignoring one-way street rules by riding in the opposite direction and even worse riding without a helmet.
We also ride our scooter around the city on occasion and the increasing number of motorcycle accidents we see weekly are coming from all kinds of riders. Food delivery, courier riders and even school children.
Our biggest worry, day in and day out when driving anywhere in Selangor, especially along Old Klang Road, Kampung Medan, Bangsar South/Kampung Kerinchi, Bandar Sunway and most of Shah Alam is the number of teenagers and school children riding and also being pillion riders without wearing a helmet (as in this picture).
As a car driver we are getting more worried, which we are sure most other drivers are also feeling the same way. Why, well if we were to be in a small accident with motorcyclists ‘running’ a red light when we have a green light in our favor, imagine the horror with the social media that sees only ‘one side of the story’ which accuses us the car driver.
Then, what if the motorcycle rider is NOT wearing a helmet and has an accident and it is fatal. Will the car driver that hit them be liable for the fatality and have to go through all the horror of being accused and branded a murderer like with the recent ‘basikal lajak’ case?
Parents who allow their school going children to ride a motorcycle without a safety helmet or who themselves ride without a helmet should have their motorcycle taken away. A fine and the cancellation of the motorcycle license will NOT work as we are sure MOST of them DO NOT even have a license.
Confiscating the motorcycle and making them do community service like cleaning drains and cleaning streets around where they live would be a good start to shame them.
Let them wear a VEST that says ‘tak pakai helmet’ and this might send a message to all the other law breakers in the neighborhood.
Over the past few years we have been taking pictures of offenders and sometimes even a short video of riders breaking the law to share on social media to get the attention of the authorities and this is also not working with enforcement.
Yes, our police department is under-staffed and some others are too busy doing outrider work for senior civil servants and their children. But this has to be looked at seriously as riding a motorcycle without a helmet could end up in DEATH, especially the way these boys in the picture were ‘beating the three traffic lights further up the street.
Fact! Right now Malaysia has the highest road fatality risk (per 100,000 population) among the ASEAN countries. Click here for more details.
