INGENIEUR
Factors Behind High
Fatalities Among Young
Motorcyclists
By Nuur Sakinah Azman, Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS)
Photos by Safuan bin Nazari
A
s of 2015, there have
been 3,816 fatalities
among motorcyclists
in Malaysia, all due to road
accidents. It’s in the news
every other day, be it during
the rainy season or during
fine, sunny weather. Of the
3,816 fatalities, approximately
36.27% of the motorcyclists
who died are youths aged
between 16 and 25 years old
as shown in Figure 1.
Youths are an essential
Figure 1 Fatality rate of motorcyclists in Malaysia (Source: Royal
component of our society
Malaysian Police, 2015)
since they are the ones who
will determine the future of
2004). Until then, youths will most likely make
our nation. The human cost
of each motorcyclist fatality in a road accident immature decisions especially when riding,
is RM1.15 million (Mohd Faudzi, Nuura Addina, such as not recognising certain road hazards or
Nahdiya, Nor Ghani & Husaini, 2013), thus the misjudging traffic events which may consequently
total loss to our country is around RM1.6 billion. lead to a road crash (Casey, Getz & Galvan, 2008).
The question is, why do these accidents happen, There are certain approaches which can be taken
to educate young motorcyclists such as giving
especially to young motorcyclists?
The first answer would be that being youths, them proper training while they are still earning
they are still immature and are thus unable their riding licenses, or ensuring that there is
to respond in an acceptable way in certain a sufficient amount of supervision during their
situations. They are also immature in terms of early times on the road while still in their licensing
brain development which, in turn, affects the probationary period.
Lack of riding experience due to their relatively
learning process of riding skills and also riding
young
age also contribute to the high percentage
behaviour. This is because the prefrontal cortex
of
youths
involved in road accidents (Haworth,
which handles cognitive analysis is one of the
last sections of the brain to fully mature, usually Symmons & Kowadlo, 2000). It is no secret that
happening around the age of 25 years old (Giedd, practice makes perfect, and the same can be said
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VOL
2018
VOL 74
55 APRIL-JUNE
JUNE 2013