LETTER | The horrific crash on May 13, 2025, when a sand-laden lorry ploughed into a Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) truck along Jalan Chikus-Sungai Lampam, killing nine police personnel and injuring others, yet again lays bare Malaysia’s failing road safety system.

Just months earlier, on Dec 23, 2024, a lorry with a dislodged wheel caused a fatal pile-up on the North-South Expressway, claiming several lives.

These tragedies are not isolated incidents, but symptoms of systemic neglect, regulatory failure, and misplaced priorities.

In the aftermath, an academic from Universiti Putra Malaysia suggested banning individuals with criminal records from working as drivers.

The proposal is both simplistic and discriminatory. Many ex-offenders, including rehabilitated drug addicts, have successfully reintegrated into society and deserve the chance to earn an honest living.

A blanket ban would unfairly stigmatise them without addressing the root causes of these accidents.

The Transport Ministry, entrusted with regulating commercial transport, continues to display an alarming incapacity to manage and prevent fatal incidents.

Preliminary findings suggest the FRU crash was due to steering failure, raising questions about vehicle inspections and mechanical integrity.

Meanwhile, the 2024 North-South Expressway tragedy remains unresolved; six months have passed with no official findings released, and some reports only make vague references to a missing wheel.

Promised safety upgrades, such as solar-powered floodlights on dark stretches of highway, remain undelivered due to “budget constraints”, underscoring the troubling reality that cost is being weighed above human life.

Two systemic flaws exacerbate these problems.

First, the Puspakom inspection regime is riddled with corruption, where “runners” routinely secure roadworthiness certifications with perfunctory inspections.

Arrests have occurred, but the absence of prosecutions has allowed a culture of impunity to persist.

Second, the rampant overloading of commercial vehicles, most likely a contributing factor in the FRU crash, significantly impairs vehicle handling and increases fatality risks.

The ministry’s reliance on periodic enforcement “operasi” is woefully inadequate and resembles the proverbial futility of “a mouse trying to drag a tortoise”.

Malaysia urgently needs bold structural reforms. One radical but necessary step would be to abolish the Puspakom system entirely and place responsibility for roadworthiness on commercial fleet owners, who must self-certify with severe penalties for non-compliance.

Any fatal crash should trigger manslaughter investigations, not just for drivers, but also for vehicle owners.

Enforcement can be strengthened by targeting high-risk vehicles, identified via age or usage frequency (using diesel subsidy data), for surprise inspections.

Mandating monthly GPS-linked updates on vehicle locations would enable real-time tracking and facilitate roadside audits.

These reforms would do far more to prevent tragedies than scapegoating individual drivers.

The FRU crash, the unresolved North-South Expressway incident, and the undelivered safety upgrades are not merely administrative lapses. They are avoidable failures that cost lives.

If the Transport Ministry continues to treat enforcement as a box-ticking exercise and use budget constraints as an excuse, more innocent lives will be lost.

What is needed now is not just reactionary measures, but a comprehensive overhaul of how road safety is governed in Malaysia.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.