Number of fatal road accidents in Sarawak has risen this year, says state deputy police commissioner

SIBU: Road accidents and fatalities have increased in Sarawak during the first 11 months of this year, says Sarawak deputy police commissioner Datuk Ibrahim Darus.

"The state road accident and fatal accident statistics for 2023 do not show the change in the attitude of road users as expected. In fact, from January to November this year, the number of road accidents has increased, which is quite worrying," said Ibrahim on Friday (Dec 22).

Speaking at the launch of Ops Selamat in conjunction with the 2023 Christmas celebration, he said the increase in accidents was despite many road safety campaigns.

"From January to November this year, the number of road accident cases increased by 9.3% or 1.7 cases compared to last year. There were 19,495 cases this year compared to 17,829 cases last year," he said.

As for fatal accident cases, 335 cases this year were reported compared to 316 cases last year. This was an increase of 19 cases or 6%.

On accident cases during the last two Christmas celebrations, he said there were 361 cases in 2022, an increase of 14 cases (3.9%) compared to 2021, which had 347 cases.

"However, the number of fatal accident cases has decreased. There were nine cases in 2022 against 12 in 2021. This shows that Ops Selamat has a positive effect in successfully reducing fatal accident cases or death among road users," he added.

Ibrahim said Ops Selamat Christmas 2023 from Dec 22 to 28 involved stationing 750 policemen in accident-prone and traffic congestion areas throughout the state.

The Operation also covered housing areas and riverine transport involving marine police.

"The marine police team will be monitoring riverine areas that use water transportation, such as Sibu, Kapit, Song, Belaga, Kanowit, Tatau and other areas where many use river routes," he said.

He hoped that the operation would help reduce accidents in the state during the Christmas celebration.

In conjunction with the launch of Ops Selamat, Ibrahim said the state police are offering a 30% discount for summons from Dec 22 to 23. Motorists can pay their summons at the counter at Farley Supermarket, Sibu and Sibu Traffic police counters.