A preliminary investigation of motorcycle fatalities showed that riding a motorcycle is 17 times more dangerous than driving a passenger car. About 50 per cent of motorcycle accidents in this country occur at junctions and 38 per cent of the incidents involve other vehicles crossing motorcycle's paths. In most cases, motorcycles are found to be moving straight ahead. Daytime accidents constitute about 73 per cent of the motorcycle accidents and about two thirds of the riders involved in multiple accidents are on their right-of-way. Based on this analysis, improved motorcycle conspicuity was proposed, and a nation-wide "running headlight" campaign and regulation were implemented in July and September, 1992, respectively. Detailed analysis on the impact of running the headlight campaign and regulation in the districts of Seremban and Shah Alam revealed that there had been a sizeable drop (6.9%) in multiple vehicle-day time motorcycle accidents in the study areas. The percentage of riders switching on their lights increased sharply just after the campaign and remained at about 82 per cent by the end of 1992. Conspicuity-related accidents while motorcycles are going straight ahead or turning on the right of way, MSTOX, were found to have dropped significantly immediately after the campaign by about 22 per cent. Statistical tests done before and after the campaign confirmed that the running headlight campaign and regulation had a significant impact (p less than 0.0005) in reducing MSTOX accidents in the study area. (A)
Abstract