PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia is studying the practices of different countries, including Germany to establish a nationwide surveillance system aimed at reducing the fatality rate and improving road safety in the country, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy.

He said Malaysia recorded more than 6,000 road fatalities last year for a population of 25 million compared to Germany which had only 5,000 fatalities last year for a population of 80 million people.

"So we still have a long way to go. This is one area in which we can learn from Germany," he said yesterday after receiving the German Deputy Minister of Transport Ralf Nagel and his delegation here.

"They (the Germans) were able to bring down their road fatality rate from 15,000 to 5,000 in the last 15 years," he said, commending Germany for taking safety initiatives to reduce fatalities by two-thirds.

"Each German family owns about three to four cars. The number of cars is increasing and yet the number of deaths in road accidents has gone down so substantially that we must learn from them."

Chan revealed that the ministry was sending a team comprising members from his ministry, the Road Transport Ministry, Road Safety Department and enforcement agencies to Germany soon to study its nationwide surveillance system which had created a high level of awareness on enforcement forcing drivers to be more careful.

According to a research by the Road Safety Unit of Universiti Putra Malaysia, Chan said the awareness level among Malaysian drivers was only 17%.

But in countries like Germany and Australia, he said, the awareness level was 95%.

On the ministry’s target of two fatalities for every 10,000 registered vehicles by 2010, Chan said the figure was 4.5 last year compared to 4.9 in 2003.

"It used to be 8.5 (fatalities) per 10,000 (registered vehicles) but after the Government’s intervention in the mid 90’s, the figure has gone down substantially," he said.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/4/27/nation/10794884&sec=nation