KS Ong in his letter 'Road accidents: The problem is lack of enforcement' is spot on in his view about the factors behind many road accidents these days.

Every time we have a major disaster, there is always a knee-jerk response from some minister or even the PM on how to prevent further disasters. This is after many lives are lost during the festival season, which was to be a joyous moment after a month of fasting by Muslims.

The latest suggestions are to have a report-card based system for heavy vehicle drivers and increasing the fines for law-breakers.

I don't know why we keep re-inventing the wheel rather then enforcing the current laws, which are sufficient. By increasing the fines, it would mean that the public would be giving out higher bribes to the police. How does this help reduce road accidents?

The report-card system will mean that we need 'headmasters' to enforce this. How do we ensure that these 'headmasters' will not take bribes as well?

It is sad but true that corruption within the agencies entrusted with enforcing noble laws for the good of the public is now one of the main causes of lives lost on the road. It is very disappointing that Pak Lah is beginning to think like Dr Mahathir in these matters.

The problem here is enforcement. This not only involves the authorities but also the public. In the case of bribery, the 'giver' and the 'taker' should both be punished severely. Also to give boost to public confidence and to send a stern warning to the enforces, some of major 'takers' should be handled with openly and some 'big shot' heads must roll.

As the saying goes, one cannot tame the tail without managing the head first. If the government keeps protecting these big shots, then there is no point in coming up with the most brilliant ideas as they will be forgotten after a while such as the saying hangat-hangat tahi ayam.

The severity of road accidents these days also have to do with the safety of vehicles. It seems like as the years go by, the quality of vehicle safety has become less important.

A collision between a locally-assembled and foreign-made car in most cases means that the driver of the latter would generally have a better chance of avoiding death.

We also have thousands of smaller sized cars on the road which are not suited for long distance driving on the highways.

What has happened to the quality control and safety of vehicles on the road? Is there a vehicle safety law in our country? What do the authorities check when the new cars are sent for safety approval (I hope this is done in the first place)?

What is the point of constructing the most beautiful and sophisticated highways when all this does is send more people to their graves, especially during festive seasons?

It is time to take stock before more lives are lost. If not we will continue reading about these deaths in the newspapers every day.