[TALK ] Vision Zero: Improving Road Safety for Better Public Health

Join us for the second talk in our Public Health Forum Series, presented by Penang Institute Plus and Wu Lien Teh Society, to explore innovative road safety solutions for Malaysia's alarming traffic fatality rates.

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[TALK] Vision Zero: Improving Road Safety for Better Public Health
Date: 8th October 2024 (Tuesday)
Time: 4pm-5.30pm
Speakers: Dr Krishnan Rajam (Public Health expert) & En Noorazrein Noorazlan Ong (Director of Enforcement Department, Majlis Bandaraya Pulau Pinang)
Venue: Conference Hall, Penang Institute

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SPEAKER

Senior Professor Dr Krishnan Rajam is an avid researcher and advocate for injury prevention, especially in road safety. His extensive and prestigious work includes serving with University of Malaya and RUMC Penang, publishing research work on injury prevention in The Lancet, working as an injury prevention technical officer with Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) of World Health Organization and publishing opinion pieces on Malaysian road safety with Malaysian news media. Now working as a senior professor with AIMST University in Bedong, Kedah, he presents to Penang Institute his expertise on road safety through the perspective of public health.

ABSTRACT

Nearly 7000 Malaysians have lost their lives on Malaysian roads last year, whilst many more walk away barely with their lives, carrying the scars of their close encounter with death. Malaysia’s rate of traffic fatality rate sits at about 22.5 deaths per 100 thousand, above the global average of 15, and is Southeast Asia’s 2nd highest fatality rate only after Thailand. The matter of road safety has been a subject widely discussed, especially traditionally amongst road users in the form of education and enforcement. Despite that however, the traditional approach to road safety has only perpetuate the high death toll amongst road users, especially motorcyclists who make up 59% of road fatalities. However, there are other approaches to tackling road safety such as from the Public Health approach. Alternatively, Vision Zero, an approach that aims to create a road system with the ethical imperative to prevent fatalities and shared responsibility for road safety, have seen plenty of success in countries like Sweden and Norway with some of the lowest fatalities in the world. And in Penang, a motorcycle dominant city, any road user can attest that road safety is a salient issue and might worth exploring other more radical approaches.

Host or Publisher Penang Institute & Dr. Wu Lien-Teh Society