Drunk driving has reached a ‘tipping’ point in Malaysia with a rise in offenders and even worse, there have been deaths on the road due to these drunk drivers. It is time for more public awareness of the many offenders and it needs to be ‘in your face’ immediately.
This means ‘privileged’ Malaysians should also be subjected to the same tough laws as the common drunk driver and there should be road-blocks outside of the car parks of all high volume popular drinking outlets to start.
Easy, just have road blocks outside of TREC and Zouk in KL and along Jalan Ampang and Jalan Tun Razak every day for a week with TV crews in attendance and then see how the drunk driving rate falls in Malaysia.
Follow through with ad hoc road blocks with TV crews every so often and you will see the numbers reducing.
Why TV crews in attendance. This way Malaysians can see that there is strict enforcement and there are no exemptions for the privileged.
Move the road blocks to different locations like Sri Hartamas and Bangsar with the same format.
Then take the format state by state.
Convicted drivers must be shown on TV and in all language newspapers. The message must be sent out to all races and be made to understand that the law is not taking a back seat to this very serious offence.
A drunk driver is 13 times more likely to cause an accident compared to a sober one. But we are not just talking about the traffic accidents caused by drunk driving, there is are also legal consequences when you drink and drive.
In all states of Malaysia, the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for drivers is below 0.08.
According to section 43 of the The Road Transport Act 1987, it states that a person who drives “without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for another persons using the road” is considered guilty of an offence. According to this section, drunk driving is punishable, and if offenders are found guilty, they can expect to pay a fine of up to RM10,000 and a maximum period of imprisonment of 12 months. This has to be changed as quickly as possible with a much higher fine, no bail and removal of the convicted persons driving license for more than 12 months.
There’s no absolute safe level of alcohol consumption for competent driving. Even after a few drinks, your driving ability is affected. The more you drink, the higher your blood alcohol concentration, and the greater your chance of having an accident.
