By Gigian Chin
The Kuala Lumpur Chinese Assembly Hall (KLCAH) stated that the citizens are glad to see how the government giving concern to solve the issue of drunk driving by ensuring the safety of the road user. As mentioned in The Amendment of Land and Transportation Enactment Law 1987, imposing a heavier punishment on drunk driving might not be effective in reducing the cases of drunk driving but, it might expose to more cases of bribery.
After certain researches and information exchange conducted by KLCAH, they have found out that education can be one of the ways to reduce and solve the rising issue of drunk driving. At the same time, bribery cases in our law enforcement are severe. Therefore, imposing a heavier punishment regarding drunk driving might not be effective in reducing drunk driving cases but instead, increases of negative side effects.
“We should educate our citizens not to drive after drinking a certain amount of alcohol and they should adhere to the law enforcement by the government. The citizens are encouraged to use e-hailing services or ask their friend to give them ride in order to reduce the cases of drunk driving.”
The president of KLCAH Datuk Seri Dr. KK Chai stated that country such as China, Singapore, Japan and Korea, they imposed heavy punishment regarding drunk driving, but at the same time, they are effective and strict in solving bribery cases as well. As a result, they are able to solve both problems effectively and efficiently.
“In Singapore, those who found guilty in drunk driving for the first time, the penalty given are ranged from SGD 2000 to SGD 10,000(Approximately RM6616 to RM 30 000), while 2nd time onwards penalty are SGD5000 – SGD20 000(Approximately RM15,413 to RM 61,652).”
Meanwhile, in China, the penalty for those who found guilty in drunk driving will be the withdrawal of driving license for 6 months and a fine of RMB 1000 to RMB 2000 (approximately RM 600 to RM 1200). For those who convicted serious offense, the punishment given will be imprisonment for 10 days with a fine as well as cancelation of driving license.
Datuk Seri Dr.KK Chai mentioned that, according to the law amendment, the punishment for drunk driving that caused death incident will be increased from originally 10 years of imprisonment to 15 years of imprisonment for those who violate the rules for the first time and 20 years of imprisonment for those who had previous cases, a penalty fine from RM20,000, increased to RM100,000 for those who violate for the first time and RM150,000 for those who had previous cases. As for the driving license withdrawal period will be increased from a maximum of 10 years for the license withdrawal to a maximum of 20 years for the license withdrawal.
“Undeniably that those who involved in drunk driving should be punished according to the law enforcement but no to all at the same time, there are still some people consumed just a little of alcohol in certain social activities.”
As mentioned are the opinions of Datuk Seri Dr. KK Chai regarding The Amendment of Land and Transportation Enactment Law 1987, which will further enforce the punishment for drunk driving, drug consumption, and imprudent driving, including the increment of the penalty given and imprisonment period.
According to the online data release from Bukit Aman there are a total of 5,870 cases of death accident occurred in the year of 2018 (which caused 6,284 deaths) but there are only 3 death accident cases involved with drunk driving and drug consumption; in the year of 2017, there are a total of 6,265 cases of death accident (causing 6,740 deaths) but still, only 10 death accidents involved with drunk driving and drug consumptions.
As for the year of 2019, the total of death accidents occurred is 5,764 cases, causing a total of 6,167 deaths.
“Also according to the online data release from the Bukit Aman until September 2019, there are only 3 cases of deadly accidents that involved with drunk driving, from the total of 4,344 death accidents, there are 35 cases involved with breaching traffic lights, 72 cases of illegal U-turn and 483 cases of thoughtless road user.”
Datuk Seri Dr.KK Chai mentioned that the information above shows that drunk driving is not the main reason that caused death accident, but the reason caused the deadly accidents occurred are imprudent driving and so on, where we should focus more on how to reduce and overcome the mentioned issues.
Including with the statistic in the year of 2017, there are a total of 6,265 death accident cases. Among all the 6,265 cases, there are 188 cases of traffic lights breaching, 272 cases of illegal U-turn, and 565 cases involved with thoughtless road users. Meanwhile, in the year of 2018, there are 108 cases of traffic lights breaching, 174 cases involved with illegal U-turn, and 630 cases of thoughtless road users.
