Apparently perplexed by racial statistics for recent road accident fatalities, the police are pointing to coconut milk (santan) as among the likely culprits.

 

An  Oriental Daily  report yesterday said police have analysed road fatality figures from the recent Ops Selamat 6 and postulating that differences in food choices led to a difference in alertness levels of drivers.

 

The report quoted Bukit Aman traffic police chief Mohd Fuad Abdul Latiff ( left ) as saying that Malays often consumes high-calorie foods containing coconut milk and thus became drowsy while behind the wheel whereas Chinese drivers didn’t normally face the same problem.

 

“If the nasi kandar served at mamak stalls contains poppy seeds, this would cause drowsiness as well.

 

“However I must stress that I am not a food expert and these are only intuitions and guesses from the traffic police discussions.

 

“Academic research remains the work of experts to investigate,” Mohd Fuad said.

 

He told the press conference yesterday that 199 people were killed throughout Ops Selamat 6, a 15-day road safety campaign conducted in conjunction with the Chinese New Year festive period last month.

 

Figures similar to census

Of these, 94 victims were Malay (47.2 percent), 41 were Chinese (20.6 percent), 31 were Indians (15.5 percent), 22 were Malaysians of other races (11 percent) while the remaining 11 were foreigners (5.5 percent).

 

Food preferences aside, Mohd Fuad also posited that the high Malay body count could be due to faster driving compared to other ethnic groups drivers or due to a large number of them being motorcycle riders.

 

Based on the latest census in 2010, Malays make up 50.0 percent of the Malaysian population, Chinese 22.6 percent, Indians 6.7 percent, other races (including non-Malay bumiputeras) 12.4 percent, and foreigners 8.1 percent. This is similar to the ethnic breakdown of the road accident fatality figures.

 

Fuad added that on average, 13 people were killed a day in road accidents throughout Ops Selamat 6, compared to the long-term average of 18 per day.

 

Most of the fatal accidents took place in the morning between 6am to 10am during the morning rush hour or late at night between 10pm and 2am. These make up 21.7 percent and 19 percent of all fatal accidents, respectively.

 

If the non-fatal accidents are also counted, there are an average of 1,300 accidents in Malaysia each day throughout 2014, he said.

 

During Ops Selamat 6 however, that figure dropped to 1,100 accidents per day.