Malaysia is paying a heavy price due to road accidents, and the cost to the economy last year was about RM9.3 billion, Road Safety Department director-general Suret Singh said today.

"The massive loss was calculated taking into account various aspects, including insurance payout, medical costs and productivity loss due to permanent disability resulting from road accidents," he said.

Once the road users, especially motorcyclists, changed their mindset and became more disciplined in road usage, the country could save the RM9 billion which amounted to 1.5 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he said at the safety and health campaign on roads and at the workplace organised by Proton Holdings Berhad at its headquarters in Shah Alam.

The event was launched by Proton group managing director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir.

Suret Singh said his department had helped to reduce the road accident injury rate by 42 percent over the last five years.

"The department has also reduced the road accident fatality rate to 3.55 percent now compared with 4.3 per ent five years ago," he said, adding that 6,745 people died in road accidents last year.

He said many fatalities and injury cases due to road accidents involved motorcyclists, and added that the figure could be reduced if motorcyclists followed traffic rules and fastened safety helmets properly.

- Bernama