I write to restate what seems to me the main cause of road accidents and fatalities - and more importantly to suggest a solution.

From the accident statistics published in the press, it is very clear that motorcyclists comprise the majority of fatalities - and this has been consistent for many years. And as the stats show, this is valid for all highways and interstate/intercity roads.

As in this country, motorcyclists are allowed to travel on highways and interstate/intercity roads together with cars at speeds above 60km/hr, the accident rates we are witnessing should actually be expected.

While there are many motorcyclists and car drivers (particularly youngsters) who may drive recklessly, the following suggestions would, I believe, have a tremendous positive impact on reducing our accident rates.

It is quite obvious that the easiest and quickest way to bring down the accident rate sharply would be to take both the following simple actions:

1. Disallow motorcyclists from riding on highways and interstate/intercity roads where vehicle speed limits are above 60km/hr (unless there is a separate lane for motorcyclists riding bikes below 1,000cc).

Motorcycles less than 1,000cc are banned from many intercity/interstate freeways in the US and Europe.

I have personally often enough had to avoid hitting motorcyclists weaving in and out of traffic - both on the highways and on city roads. (It would also be ironical to mandate air bags be installed in cars if we still let motorcyclists ride on these freeways!)

2. Drop the protective/artificially high prices of cars in Malaysia so that motorcyclists can more easily afford to own and maintain their own cars - preferably cars with better protective and safety features.

In most developed countries where cars are much cheaper than here, the youngsters can more easily afford cars and seldom get into accidents that result in fatalities. In fact, motorcycles are seldom seen on their highways.

If we are not to discriminate against the lower-income earners of our society from travelling on our highways, we would first need to get our car market sorted out from the mess it is currently is in.

Do we have the political will to resist the now well-entrenched business interests who would like to keep domestic car prices high through protective tariffs and excise duties etc? If not, it seems to me that the policies of the government should share a significant blame for the number of fatalities on Malaysian roads.