Navigating the Hari Raya Aidilfitri festivities: Essential travel tips and advisory

MALAYSIA reported 598,635 road crashes and 6,433 road deaths in the year 2023 (Royal Malaysia Police, 2024). During the major festive period when most of the population travel back home to be with their families, there is a huge volume of traffic in multiple folds compared to normal days being on the road during the same time. This will increase road crash and injury risk. Road safety is everyone's responsibility and collectively road users can help to make their travel a safe one. Here are WHO's recommended 5 main Safety Tips for all travellers during this festive period.

Reduce Speed

Speed carries energy and causes injury. Thus, to prevent an injury from occurring, we need to reduce speed. Speed reduction also has a double benefit where it helps to prevent from a road crash happening since at lower speeds, we have better control and concentration of the machine and roadway system. In the event of a road crash, the injury severity can be lowered during a crash at a lower speed. Therefore, lower speed can help to prevent injury and reduce injury severity. A 1km speed decrease can help to reduce 3% of crash injuries and 4-5% of crash fatalities.

Use of Seat Belts

Seat belts help to restrain our body movement in a vehicle from injuries. It can reduce the risk of death among vehicle occupants by up to 50%. All adult car occupants need to be restrained including the rear passengers. An unrestrained rear seat adult passenger will not only endanger themselves but also will be moving around in a crash and cause harm to all other occupants potentially causing injuries to them despite them being belted. Drivers can take responsibility by wearing a seat belt and ensuring all other occupants in their car are also belted including the rear seat passengers before starting the journey. Public transport buses with seat belts should also promote and encourage their passengers to be restrained while travelling in a bus.

Use of Child Restraint Seats

All car occupants need to be restrained and for children below 135cm and 36kg in weight, they require a child restraint seat to travel safely. The use of child restraint seats can lead to a 71% reduction in deaths among infants. Do get a standard child restraint seat which has the certification label UNR44 or UNR129 and install it properly to obtain full benefit and protection from the safety product. It is crucial to install it correctly based on both the car manual as well as the child restraint seat manual.

Sufficient Sleep and Rest

The human body needs both sufficient sleep and rest in terms of quantity and quality of sleep. Recommended sleeping hours before travel are between 6-8 hours and best for at least three days before the travel and not limited to only a day before travel. This is because there is an issue of sleep debt which occurs when there is insufficient sleeping time and this sleep debt cannot be cleared immediately with a day of rest, it needs more than a day of rest to recover fully. There are common symptoms of fatigue to look for early detection: unable to maintain a vehicle within the lane, missing exit points and forgetting the exit. A quick stopover in a safe place is required with a recommended 20-minute power nap will help to mitigate and elevate fatigue to pave the way for full concentration while driving on the road.

Use Public Transport

Public transport is the safest mode of transport especially the rail-based system as they do not share the same route with other modes of transport. Globally countries with good rail-based public transport systems record lower road crashes and fatalities. During the festive season, to reduce private vehicles on the road as much as possible, the supply of public transport should be high and consumers also should respond well and patronage this safe system mode of transport. All public transport operators should also continuously maintain the level of safety on the road as they carry a very large number of passengers with them.

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Dr Kulanthayan Mani, Road Safety Consultant, WHO Representative Office for Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and Singapore

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