SHAH ALAM, 12 Oct: The Long Short Walk 2014 programme in Selangor is organised towards realising the spirit of cooperation based on participation from all walks of life towards promoting and increasing awareness on road safety.
The main focus of the campaign is on youth because based on Police statistics, road users aged 16 to 20 is the category of road users that are mostly killed in road accidents, followed by ages 21 to 25.
“Both this age groups account for one-third of the total number of deaths due to road accidents. The fact that most road accidents involve the young people is sad.
“If this is allowed to persist, certainly the country will experience a shortage of manpower and intellect in efforts to head towards a high-income nation by 2020,” said the Deputy State Government Secretary, Datuk Mohd Azin Ahmad Ahya, during a speech at the opening of the programme yesterday.
He was representing the State Government Secretary, Datuk Mohamed Khusrin Munawi, at the ceremony which was attended by the Director General of the Department of Road Safety, Datuk Dr Tam Weng Wah, and the Mayor of Shah ALam, Datuk Mohd Jaafar Mohd Ali.
The ceremony for the presentation of motorcycle licenses to 30 students chosen from three districts, Gombak, Kuala Langat and Hulu Selangor, was also held where half of the cost to have a licence was sponsored by the Selangor Road Safety Council (MKJR).
The total number of students who were assisted were about 150 people; 50 from each of the three districts.
Based on the statistics received from the Selangor Contingent Police Headquarters deaths from road accidents have decreased from 1,102 in 2012 to 1,019 last year; 83 deaths or 7.53 percent.
According to the statistics for August, 87 deaths compared to 99 cases during the same month last year, where there was a decrease of 12 cases or a decrease of 12.1 percent.
The Long Short Walk is an annual event organised by the Selangor MKJR and the Selangor JKJR.
NS
