IATSS Research 36 (2012) 30–39

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IATSS Research

Motorcycle fatalities in Malaysia

Muhammad Marizwan Abdul Manan ⁎, András VárhelyiP.O. Box 118, John Ericssons väg 1, 22100, Traffic and Roads Unit (Taffik och väg), Department of Technology and Society (Teknik och Samhälle),Faculty of Engineering (Lunds Tekniska Högskola), Lund University, Lund, Sweden

⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.:+46046 222 9125,+46 0046 222 9100.

E-mail addresses: mmarizwan@gmail.com (M.M. Abandras.varhelyi@tft.lth.se (A. Várhelyi).

0386-1112/$ – see front matter © 2012 International Adoi:10.1016/j.iatssr.2012.02.005

a b s t r a c t

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 29 June 2011Received in revised form 8 February 2012Accepted 10 February 2012

Keywords:MotorcycleFatalityMalaysia

Malaysia has the highest road fatality risk (per 100,000 population) among the ASEAN countries and morethan 50% of the road accident fatalities involve motorcyclists. This study has collected and analysed datafrom the police, government authorities, and national and international research institutes. Only fatalitydata are used due to the severe underreporting of severe injuries (up to 600%) and slight injuries (up to1400%). The analysis reveals that the highest numbers of motorcycle fatalities occur in rural locations(61%), on primary roads (62%) and on straight road sections (66%). The majority are riders (89%), 16 to20 years old (22.5%), and 90% of the motorcycles are privately owned. Of those involved in fatal accidents,75% of the motorcyclists wear helmets, and 35% do not have proper licences. The highest number of fatalitiesby type of collision is ‘angular or side’ (27.5%). Although fatal motorcyclist crashes mostly involve ‘passengercars’ (28%), motorcyclists are responsible for 50% of the collisions either by crashing singly (25%) or withother motorcyclists (25%). While male motorcyclists predominate (94% of fatalities), female motorcyclistsaged 31 to 70, possessing ‘no licence’, not wearing helmets and travelling during the day, account for a higherpercentage than male motorcyclists. Malaysia must acquire more motorcycle exposure data and establish aninjury recording system and database based on hospital-records. To reduce motorcycle fatalities, it first has tounderstand why young male motorcyclists are prone to fatal crashes in the evenings and on weekends onrural primary roads, especially on straight road sections.© 2012 International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Road injuries and fatalities are a growing concern in Malaysia,with more than 6000 killed and over 25,000-recorded injuriesyearly for the past 5 years [1]. Road fatalities have shown a steadyincrease of 4% per year in the last 7 years, rising to 6745 in 2009[1]. More alarmingly, Malaysia has had the highest fatality risk,i.e. death per 100,000 population, in the world since 1996! [2].Fig. 1 shows that the majority of road accident fatalities involvemotorcyclists, constituting more than 50% of the total number offatalities. In 2009 alone, motorcycle fatalities reached 4070, whichis the highest for the last 10 years [1]. Fig. 1 also shows that motor-cycle fatalities are 3 times higher than car fatalities, 6 times higherthan pedestrian fatalities and nearly 50 times higher than bus pas-senger fatalities.

Road accident statistics based on police injury records are proba-bly inadequate and insufficient due largely to underreporting [3–5].Comparing Malaysian accident statistics to a highly developedmotorised country like Sweden (see Table 1), it can be concluded

76 233 5775 (HP no); fax:+46

dul Manan),

ssociation of Traffic and Safety Scien

that there are 9 severe injuries for each fatality in the Swedish statis-tics, while there are only 1.4 severe injuries per fatality according tothe Malaysian statistics. The rate of slight injuries per fatality inSweden is 57 to one, while according to statistics in Malaysia it is 4to one. Concerning motorcycle injuries and fatalities, the rate ofunderreporting of injuries in Malaysia is similar. Due to the unreliableinjury statistics in Malaysia, further analysis of road safety problemscan only be based on fatalities, and including injury data in theanalyses would induce bias in inferences and the marginal impactsof a variety of factors could be overestimated [6].

As the total of motorcycle billion kilometres travelled in Malaysiaincreased from 1999 to 2008, motorcycle fatalities increased as well;see Fig. 2, which indicates that motorcycle casualties are affected bythe increase in exposure.

Motorization in Asian countries is growing fast and the motorcycleis the dominating transport mode. The number of motorcycles perthousand people averaged over several major Asian cities is approxi-mately 196, which is 7 times the average of the rest of the world [11].For example, the number of registered motorcycles in Taiwan com-prises 50% of the total number of registered vehicles; in Thailand itis 63%, in Cambodia 84%, in Vietnam 95%, in Lao 79% and in Indonesia73% [12–14]. Malaysia, with a population of 27.6 million, is not anexception [15,16]. According to The Road Transport Department ofMalaysia, the total number of motorcycles in 2009 was 8,940,230

ces. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Table 1Road accident severity in Sweden and Malaysia in 2008 [7,8].

Fatalities Severelyinjured

SlightlyInjured

Severe:Fatal

Slight:Fatal

SwedenAll types of accidents 397 3657 22,591 9:1 57:1Motorcycle accidents(rider and passenger)

51 341 898 7:1 17:1

MalaysiaAll types of accidents 6527 8868 25,747 1.4:1 4:1Motorcycle accidents(rider and passenger)

3898 5472 10,326 1.4:1 2.6:1

Motorcycle60%

Car22%

Pedestrian9%

Bicycle3%

Lorry3%

Van1%

Others1%

Bus1%

Fig. 1. Fatality distribution by mode of transport [1].

31M.M. Abdul Manan, A. Várhelyi / IATSS Research 36 (2012) 30–39

(47% of all motorised vehicles), which was 5% more than passengercars [16,17].

The proportion of the motorcycle population on Malaysian roadsvaries from state to state. In less developed states such as Perlis andKelantan (northern part of Malaysia), the motorcycle population ismore than three-quarters of the total motor vehicle population[18,19]. In more developed states such as Selangor (Western part of

34103519

3369

3429

3548

3

80.8485.2

89.23 92.9498.06

1

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Motorcycle Fatalities M

Mot

orcy

cle

Fat

aliti

es

Fig. 2. Total motorcycle kilometres travelled and mot

Malaysia), motorcycles constitute one-third of the total motor vehiclepopulation. The motorcycle is the major mode of personal transportfor the low-income urban community [20].

In general, motorcycles are the major contributor to road fatalitiesin the country, with no sign of declining in the near future [19–24].Moreover, motorcyclists have a higher fatality rate per distance trav-elled than other vehicles; for example, in 2004, there were 32.2 fatal-ities per billion kilometres travelled whereas for passenger cars it was8.39 fatalities per billion [9].

2. Aim

The aim of this paper is to analyse the causality risk of motorcy-clists, including both riders and passengers, in order to find thefactors contributing to motorcycle crashes and subsequently builda base for further research on how to improve the situation ofmotorcyclists.

3. Method

The motorcycle fatal accident data is analysed in terms of frequen-cy and pattern by type of location, area, road, time, crash type, gender,age, ownership and type of licence. The data comes from varioussources, such as the Malaysian Royal Police Department, MalaysianInstitute of Road Safety Research (MIROS), Department of Statistics[15], Highway Planning Unit [16], Road Transport Department (JPJ),Department of Road Safety (JKJR), Public Works Department (JKR)and World Health Organization (WHO) reports. The main core ofthe fatal motorcycle accident data, however, comes from the Malay-sian Royal Police Department.

4. Analyses

4.1. Malaysian motorcycle fatalities in comparison to ASEAN countries

Malaysia's motorcycle fatalities are not among the worst in the As-sociation of South East Asian Nations, ASEAN. Motorcycles constituteapproximately 58% of the vehicles in ASEAN countries, and over thelast decade the motorcycle has been the major contributor, with52%, to road traffic fatalities [14]. If we compare motorcycle fatalitiesper 10,000-registered motorcycles in each country, Malaysia ranksseventh as seen in Table 2. The three highest are Cambodia (75.1),

500 3591

3693 3646 38984070

04.54111.47

118.63126.35

137.42

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

otorcycle Total KM Travel (billion)

Mot

orcy

le T

otal

KM

Tra

vel

(Bill

ions

)

orcycle fatalities between 1998 and 2009 [8–10].

Table 3Motorcycle fatality rates by region in Malaysia in year 2009 [1,15,16].

Region ofMalaysiaa

Population Population density(per km2)

Registeredmotorcycles

Motorcyclefatality

Motorcycle fatality/100,000population

Motorcycle Fatality/10,000motorcycles

West Coast 4,044,205 730 2,452,630 1031 25.5 4.2East Coast 3,919,135 215 1,047,225 707 18.0 6.8Southern 3,233,434 168 1,701,272 673 20.8 4.0Northern 3,637,266 1926 1,777,419 672 18.5 3.8East Peninsular 5,540,049 62 689,916 174 3.1 2.5Federal Territories 1,780,408 9020 1,271,768 95 5.3 0.7Total 27,565,821b 83 8,940,230 3352c – –

a Malaysia consists of 14 states — 3 in the North, 3 in the West and East coast, 3 Federal territories and 2 in the East Peninsular.b Including 5,411,324 population count based on DOSM 2010.c Excluding 718 unknown cases.

Table 2Road traffic safety data from ASEAN countries [14,25].

No ASEANcountries

Population(2007)

Registered motorcycle(2007)

Reported fatalities(2007)

Road fatalitiesper 100,000population

Motorcycle fatalitiesper 10,000 registeredmotorcycles

Total (million) (%) Total (%)

1 Brunei 390,056 0.01 4 54 11 13.8 4.92 Singapore 4,436,281 0.14 17 214 48 4.8 7.1 (3)3 Lao P.D.R. 5,859,393 0.51 79 608 80 10.4 9.6 (2)4 Cambodia 14,443,679 0.13 84 1545 63 10.7 75.1 (1)5 Malaysia 26,571,879 7.91 47 6282 58 23.6 (1) 4.66 Myanmar 48,798,212 0.68 65 1638 10 3.4 2.47 Thailand 63,883,662 16.14 63 12,492 70 19.6 (2) 5.48 Vietnam 87,375,196 21.78 95 12,800 80 14.6 (3) 4.79 Philippinesa 87,960,117 2.65 48 1185 37 1.3 1.710 Indonesia 231,626,978 46.22 73 16,548 61 7.1 2.2

Total 571,345,453 96.17 58 53,366 52

() ranking within category, MC: motorcyclea Data from 2006.

32 M.M. Abdul Manan, A. Várhelyi / IATSS Research 36 (2012) 30–39

Lao P.D.R (9.6) and Singapore (7.1) in terms of motorcycle fatalitiesper 10,000 registered motorcycles [14] (see Table 2). However,Malaysia has the highest number of road fatalities per 100,000 popu-lation (see Table 2) [14].

4.2. Motorcycle crashes by location

Malaysia's west coast states have the highest number of motorcy-cle fatalities and fatality rate per 100,000 population, as seen inTable 3. The east coast region, with a lower motorcycle populationand less built-up density, has the highest fatality rate per 10,000motorcycles [1]. Meanwhile, the Federal Territories, which have thehighest population density, record the lowest rate in motorcyclefatality per 10,000 registered motorcycles.

City8%

Town12%

Small town19%

Rural61%

Oth(Moto& Pri

Roa62

Fig. 3. Motorcycle fatality b

Overall, police records show that 61% of these fatalities occur inrural areas while cities record only 8%, as seen in Fig. 3 [1]. Lookingdeeper into the type of area, motorcycle fatalities are mostly recordedon motorways and primary roads (62%). Apart from this, motorcyclesfatalities are also found more in residential areas (20%), as comparedto other types of areas, see Fig. 3.

Table 4 shows that the majority of motorcycle fatalities occur onarterial or primary roads, [1,26]. Related to the road length, the high-est fatality rate per 100 km and per 100,000 motorcycles also occursalong primary or arterial roads. Moreover, there are more motorcyclefatalities per 100 km of Malaysian primary roads than on secondaryroads, local streets and minor roads combined. Unfortunately, dataon traffic volumes for the different types of roads is not available;hence, we cannot relate motorcycles crashes to their exposure onthese roads.

Residential20% Office

5%Shopping

3%

Industrial/Construction

4%

Bridge/Foot Bridge

3%

School3%

er rways mary ds)%

ased on area type [1].

Table 4Motorcycle fatality by road type in Malaysia in 2009 [1,8,26].

Road hierarchy Road length ADT(million)

MCfatalities

MC fatal/100 km

MC fatal/100,000MC

km % Veh MC N %

Expressway 1635 1.3 20.6 * 121 3.0 7.4 *Primary/arterial 16,939 13.6 12.8 2.6 2021 49.7 11.9 76.7Secondary/collector 54,681 43.9 6.3 1.6 672 16.5 1.2 42.0Local street 43,363 34.8 * * 755 18.6 1.7 *Minor roads 8038 6.4 * * 501 12.3 6.2 *Total 124,656 100 – – 4070 100 3.3 –

ADT — average daily traffic, Veh — vehicle, MC — motorcycle,(*) — data is not available.The traffic count (ADT) covers 70% of each road hierarchy in Malaysia.

0.4% 0.4% 0.5%5

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

staggeredjunction

interchanges roundabout cross

Fig. 4. Percentage motorcycle fatality on vario

9.0%

7.9%8.6%

7.9%8.6%

8.0%

0.0%

1.0%

2.0%

3.0%

4.0%

5.0%

6.0%

7.0%

8.0%

9.0%

10.0%

Fig. 5. Cumulative percentages of motorcycle f

15.3%14.3%

13.4% 1

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

16.0%

18.0%

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Th

Fig. 6. Cumulative percentages of motorcycle

33M.M. Abdul Manan, A. Várhelyi / IATSS Research 36 (2012) 30–39

The great majority of motorcycles fatalities are reported onstraight road sections, see Fig. 4 [8]. Fatal accidents involving motor-cycles are three times as high on straight road sections compared tothe curved sections. Staggered junctions, interchanges and round-abouts have the lowest number of fatalities, recording less than 1.0%fatalities each in 2009 [1].

4.3. Motorcycle fatalities by time and weather conditions

For the period 2000 to 2009, motorcycle fatalities are evenly dis-tributed over the months of the year, see Fig. 5 [1]. Motorcycle fatalityrecords are highest from Saturday to Tuesday, as seen in Fig. 6. Thehighest motorcycle fatalities occur between 4 pm and 10 pm, asshown in Fig. 7. On average, there have been 243 motorcycle fatalities

.0%

13.5% 14.3%

66.0%

junction t - junction bend/curve straight

us parts of the road network in 2009 [1].

8.7%9.1%

7.9%8.4%

7.8%8.2%

atalities by month from 2000 to 2009 [1].

3.3% 13.2%14.7%

15.8%

ursday Friday Saturday Sunday

fatalities by day from 2000 to 2009 [1].

8.3%

4.5%3.9%

8.8%7.7%

6.7%

8.2% 8.3%

10.2%

12.4% 12.7%

8.5%

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

Fig. 7. Cumulative percentages of motorcycle fatality by time of the day from 2000 to 2009 [1].

34 M.M. Abdul Manan, A. Várhelyi / IATSS Research 36 (2012) 30–39

per month, 60 fatalities per week and 8 fatalities per day over the last10 years in Malaysia.

Motorcycle fatalities occur more often during clear weather(93.0%) and during the day (55.6%), see Table 5 [1]. The percent-age of fatalities occurring during the day in clear weather is52.5%. Fatalities at night also occur mostly in clear weather condi-tions (34%).

Table 5Motorcycle fatalities by weather and light conditions [1].

Weather Light conditions Total %

Day Dawn/dusk

Night withstreet light

Night withoutstreet light

Clear 1760 289 593 477 3119 93.0Windy 1 1 1 1 4 0.1Foggy 4 15 0 10 29 0.9Rain 90 14 37 41 182 5.4Other 8 6 2 2 18 0.5Total 1863 325 633 531 3352a 100.0% 55.6 9.7 18.9 15.8 100

a Excluding 718 unknown cases.

0.4% 0.4% 1.0% 1.1% 1.2% 1.3%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

Fig. 8. Cumulative percentages of motorcycle fatal

4.4. Motorcycle fatalities by type of collisions

The largest group of motorcycle fatalities by type of collision is‘Angular or Side’, see Fig. 8. Over the years, this ‘Angular or Side’ col-lision has been consistently highest, followed by the ‘Out of Controland Head-on’ type of collision [1]. The ‘Out of Control’ group isdescribed by the Royal Police of Malaysia (PDRM) as ‘single vehicleaccidents’ [1], because motorcycles are often found lying off-roadand by themselves [1]. ‘Squeezed’ and ‘overturned’ are among thelowest, accounting for less than 0.5%.

4.5. Motorcycle fatalities by collision with vehicle type

The most frequent fatal traffic collision is between a motorcycleand passenger car, see Fig. 9 [1]. Collisions between motorcycles arecommon, as are ‘single-motorcycle-accidents’, accounting for up to25% each. ‘Single-motorcycle-accidents’ do not involve any othertype of vehicle, but the police categorizes them as collisions withother vehicles [1,10]. Evidently, motorcyclists themselves contributeto 50% of the fatal collisions either in ‘single accidents’ or with othermotorcyclists.

1.9%

8.9%

14.8%

19.9%21.4%

27.5%

ity by type of collision from 2000 to 2009 [1].

Passenger Car28%

Motorcycle with

motorcycle25%

Single m/c accident

25%

Trucks / Lorries

14%

Van / SUV5%

Bus2%

Trishaw / Bicycle

1%

Fig. 9. Motorcycle fatalities by collision with vehicle type [1].

35M.M. Abdul Manan, A. Várhelyi / IATSS Research 36 (2012) 30–39

4.6. Motorcycle fatalities by gender, occupancy (rider/passenger) andage groups

Table 6 shows that on an average of 5 years, 92% of motorcyclefatalities are males and 89% of the total motorcycle fatalities are riders[1]. The table also indicates that, on average, riders are eight (8) timesmore involved in fatal accidents, and that males are eleven (11) timesmore involved than females [1].

According to PDRM (2009), the age group 16 to 20 (22.5%) wasmost involved in motorcycle fatalities in the period 2000 to 2009[1].

Table 6Motorcycle fatality by motorcycle occupancy and gender [1].

Year Rider Passenger R:P

Males Females M:F Total

Total % Total % Total % Total %

2005 3181 88.6 410 11.4 1:8 3223 89.8 368 10.2 1:9 35912006 3243 87.8 450 12.2 1:7 3360 91.0 333 9.0 1:10 36932007 3197 87.7 449 12.3 1:7 3426 94.0 220 6.0 1:14 36462008 3459 88.7 439 11.3 1:8 3587 92.0 311 8.0 1:11 38982009 3640 89.4 430 10.6 1:8 3820 93.9 250 6.1 1:15 4070Average 3344 88.5 436 11.5 1:8 3483 92.1 296 7.9 1:11

R — rider, P — passenger, M — males, F — females

12

4

10

12

13

7

5

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 4

Male Female

Fig. 10. Motorcycle fatality by age

Fig. 10 shows that motorcycle fatalities are highest for 16 to20 year-old males, and that they are 10 times more involved in fatalmotorcycle accidents than females. However, the ratio of males tofemales is highest (12 and 13) for males aged 21 to 25 and 26 to 30,respectively. More alarmingly, the ratio is even higher (21) formales over the age of 75. Meanwhile, looking at the percentage ofmales and females involved in fatal accidents, as per Fig. 11, malemotorcyclists aged 16 to 30 have higher percentages than theirfemale counterparts. However, female motorcyclists aged 31 to 40,46 to 50 and 56 to 70 have a higher percentage than male motorcy-clists in the same age groups.

4.7. Motorcycle fatalities by time associated with gender

The distribution of fatalities for female motorcyclists, during thehours of the day, is highest (70%), from 8 am to 8 pm; for males, thehighest fatalities (46.5%) occur from 8 pm to 8 am, i.e., from eveningto early morning, see Fig. 12 [1].

4.8. Motorcycle fatalities by motorcycle ownership and licence type bygender

In ninety percent (90%) of the fatality cases, the motorcycle is pri-vately owned as seen in Fig. 13 [1]. Thirty five percent (35%) of thesedo not have a valid licence [1]. Although the majority of the fatalitiesare ‘full licence’ holders, the share of motorcycle fatalities with morelicence years (>5 years) is larger than the share of those with fewerlicence years [1]. Moreover, Fig. 14 shows that the fatality percentagefor female motorcyclists with ‘no licence’ and ‘less than 5 licenceyears’ is higher than for males [1].

4.9. Motorcycle fatalities by type of helmet worn and by gender

As seen in Fig. 15, seventy six percent (76%) of those involved inmotorcycle fatalities wear helmets, and 4%wear helmets not strappedproperly [1]. The percentage of female motorcyclists involved in fatalaccidents and not wearing helmets (24%) is slightly higher than formales (20%), see Fig. 16 [1].

4.10. Motorcycle fatalities by type of injury

The most frequent injury type sustained by motorcyclists in fatalaccidents is injury to the head (63%), as seen in Fig. 17 [1]. Othertypes of single injuries constitute less than 10%, while multiple inju-ries comprise 20%.

9

4

9

56

8

12

21

0

5

10

15

20

25

1-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-65 66-70 71-75 >75

Male : Female

, gender and gender ratio [1].

0.5%

0.3%

4.7%

23.1

%

17.3

%

9.4%

6.4%

4.8% 5.

5%

4.4% 5.

1%

4.0%

4.2%

3.7%

3.8%

2.9%3.

8%

1.4%

8.4%

18.2

%

11.1

%

6.0% 7.

0%

7.0%

5.1%

8.4%

4.3%

6.5%

5.4%

3.8%

2.4%

1.1%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-65 66-70 71-75 >75

% Male % Female

Fig. 11. Motorcycle fatality by age, gender and gender percentage [1].

7.7%

4.9%

2.5%

9.2%

8.1%

7.5%

7.3%

8.9%

10.9

%

10.8

% 12.9

%

9.3%

3.5%

0.8%

0.8%

8.4% 9.

2%

11.9

%

10.5

% 12.1

% 13.5

%

12.4

%

8.1% 8.

9%

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

16.0%

(%) Male (%) Female

Fig. 12. Percentage of motorcycle fatality by hours of the day and by gender [1].

‘L’ Licence is Learners licence or probational licence

Personal90%

Goods6%

Services3%

Government

1%

No Licence

35%

Full Licence

> 5 years34%

Full Licence

< 5 years29%

'L' Licence

2%

Fig. 13. Motorcycle fatality by motorcycle ownership and type of licence [1].

36 M.M. Abdul Manan, A. Várhelyi / IATSS Research 36 (2012) 30–39

‘L’ Licence is Learners licence or probational licence

34.5% 34.6%

28.8%

2.1%

40.1%

24.1%

33.3%

2.5%

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

45.0%

No Licence Full Licence > 5 years Full Licence < 5 years 'L' Licence

(%) Male (%) Female

Fig. 14. Percentage of motorcycle fatality by gender and licence type [1].

37M.M. Abdul Manan, A. Várhelyi / IATSS Research 36 (2012) 30–39

4.11. Motorcycle facilities

Motorcycle lanes and motorcycle paths are provided to a certainextent in Malaysia. During the last 10 years the Government hasmade considerable efforts to reduce motorcycle crashes, e.g., theNational Motorcycle Safety Program (Program Keselamatan Motorsi-kal Nasional) [22,27]. As part of this program, various facilities formotorcyclists, such as paths and lanes (along the carriageway or onthe road shoulder) exclusively for motorcycles, have been providedat “strategic” locations [28]. Still, this type of facility makes up lessthan 1% of the whole length of primary roads (Federal Roads),

Wearing Helmet76%

Wearing helmet but not strapped

4%

Not wearing helmet20%

Fig. 15. Motorcycle fatalities by type of helmet worn [1].

4.0%

20.0%

3.2%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

Wearing helmet but not strapped

Not wear

% Male %

Fig. 16. Percentage of motorcycle fatali

whereas paved road shoulders account for about 20% of the wholeprimary road network [28].

It is not clear if non-exclusive motorcycle lanes can mitigatemotorcycle crashes on primary roads (federal roads). This kind ofmotorcycle lane is an extra lane, which is built on the road shoulderitself, with additional markings and warning signs. Nonetheless,motorcycle fatalities on roads equipped with these non-exclusivemotorcycle lanes increased from 518 in 2006 to 589 in 2007 [8].

Motorcycle crashes have also occurred on motorways and primaryroads that are equipped with exclusive motorcycle paths. From 2006to 2008, crashes involving motorcycles steadily increased along a pri-mary road, designated as F2, which has an exclusive motorcycle pathalongside [8]. Furthermore, there were also cases where at least 5collisions per year occurred on the exclusive motorcycle path itselffrom 2006 to 2008 [8].

5. Discussion and conclusion

To analyse motorcycle rider fatalities (involving both drivers andpassengers) this paper uses fatality data, since fatality records arefound to bemore accurate and consistent than injury data in police re-cords [3]. Furthermore, due to underreporting, official police reports ofroad accident statistics are incomplete, inaccurate and biased [29]. Acomparison ofMalaysian road accident statisticswith those of Swedenreveals that underreporting of severe injuriesmight be up to 600% andfor slight injuries up to 1400%. Studies have shown thatmanymore in-jured motorcyclists are identified through hospital databases thanthrough police crash databases [30]. Moreover, police records of

76.0%

24.0%

72.9%

ing helmet Wearing helmet

Female

ty by helmet worn and gender [1].

Head63%

Neck4%

Chest9%

Hips1%

Legs3%

Multiple20%

Fig. 17. Motorcycle fatality by type of injury [1].

38 M.M. Abdul Manan, A. Várhelyi / IATSS Research 36 (2012) 30–39

people injured in traffic and admitted to hospital are not representa-tive with regard to the mode of transport and the age of the victims[4].

Our analysis reveals that Malaysia's motorcycle fatalities per10,000 registered motorcycles are still among the lowest in ASEANcountries, i.e. seventh out of ten. However, Malaysia still holds therecord for having the highest road fatalities per 100,000 population.The highest motorcycle fatalities are found in the West Coast Areaof Malaysia, which has the highest number of registered motorcyclesand population. Motorcycle fatalities are highest in rural locations(61%), mostly on the roads (62%), especially primary or arterialroads (62%), and the majority on straight road sections (66%). Motor-cycle fatalities are higher from Saturday to Tuesday (60%) andbetween 4 pm and 10 pm (35%). Most of the fatalities occur duringthe day and in clear weather conditions. The highest number offatalities by type of collision is angular or side (27.5%). Althoughfatal motorcyclist collisions are often with ‘passenger cars’ (28%), mo-torcyclists contribute 50% of the collisions either in single accidents(25%) or colliding with other motorcyclists (25%). The highest motor-cycle fatalities are recorded for riders (89%) 16 to 20 years old(22.5%), and 90% of these motorcycles are privately owned. Of thoseinvolved in fatal accidents, 75% of the motorcyclists wear helmets,and 35% of them do not possess a proper licence. Male motorcyclistsare dominant (94%), but the numbers of female fatalities in the agegroups 31 to 40, 46 to 50 and 56 to 70 are larger compared to malemotorcyclists. Moreover, females are more involved in fatal accidentsduring the day. Females possess no licence, or have a licence for lessthan 5 years, and do not wear helmets to a slightly larger extentthan males.

A study by Radin Umar [31] also shows that primary roads or arte-rial roads in Malaysia have the highest number of motorcycle fatali-ties. Of the roads in Malaysia, 60% are primary roads, which arepartially access controlled, mostly non-segregated or single carriage-way, with intrinsically dangerous features such as trees, open cul-verts, access to rural houses and narrow road barriers [12,26,32,33].

That motorcycle fatalities are more frequent in rural areas may bedue to greater speeds made possible by lower traffic volumes and lesstraffic control [21,34]. In rural areas, absence of rescue and the latearrival of rescue at the scene of accidents may also contribute to fatal-ity [21,35]. Moreover, helmet compliance is low in rural areas [36,37]due to lack of enforcement and road safety awareness [38]. Besides,a high motorcycle volume is typical in rural areas in Malaysia, com-prising 25% to 55% of total traffic [12]. On the other hand, studieshave confirmed that fatal motorcycle crashes are likely to occur onstraight road sections [18,28] that encourage speeding [39].

Other studies have shown that males aged between 16 and 25are among the most commonly involved in motorcycle fatalities[18,34,35,40,41]. Most of them have no licences [1,18] or have lessthan 3 years of experience [28]. Hence, young motorcyclists are

inexperienced, lack proper riding skills [42,43], are impulsive [44],often show risky behaviour [43,45,46] and are mostly self-taught bytrial and error [43]. It has also been shown that young motorcyclistsride for enjoyment, expression and thrill [34,46], and in doing sothey tend to violate traffic laws e.g., by not wearing helmets[12,34,43] and exceeding the speed limit [45].

Female motorcyclists who are aged 31 to 70, possess ‘no licence’,and travel during the day are involved in a higher percentage of allfemale motorcycle fatalities compared to their male counterparts.Despite the fact that female riders wear helmets to a larger extentthan male riders [36,37], this study has shown that, when not wear-ing helmets, female fatalities are higher than male fatalities This phe-nomenon might take place in rural environments where housewivesor single female parents, who are usually aged 31 to 70, often wear‘Hijab’ and frequently commute along primary roads during the day.Their activities are varied, ranging from running small businesses tofetching their children. However, these factors have not yet beenproperly studied and proven.

This study points out 3 main types of crashes in Malaysia; colli-sions with passenger cars (28%), collisions with other motorcycles(25%) and single-motorcycle crashes (25%). Motorcycle accidentswith passenger cars are also reported in Pang et al. [28], Hsu et al.[12] and Haque et al. [40]. Accidents are mainly due to the mixed traf-fic conditions in Asian countries, where motorcyclists share the roadswith cars and are the most vulnerable users [12,47]. Motorcyclesingle-vehicle accidents are also frequently reported [32,33,35,48]and are associated with poor control [49] coupled with inappropriateriding speeds [50]. Fatal motorcycle crashes involving roadsidebarriers and sharp surface objects are predominantly single vehiclecrashes [32,33].

Other studies support the assertion that motorcycle fatal crashesoccur in the evening [35,40], especially during weekends and inclear weather [32,40,51]. Krantz [49] and Yau [48] find that single-vehicle accidents occur mostly on weekends and often at night, duemainly to inadequate visibility at night, which worsens the non-conspicuity of motorcycles [52].

Injury caused in motorcycle fatalities is mainly to the ‘head’[35,53–55] and face [56] and reportedly found more often in youngmotorcyclists [53]. Despite the proven effectiveness and the successof motorcycle helmets in reducing the fatality risk of motorcycledrivers and passengers [36,37,54,55,57], this study shows that 20%of the motorcycle riders involved in fatal accidents did not wear hel-mets, and 63% sustained head injuries. Of these, 75% wore helmets, sowhether the helmets give enough protection should be further inves-tigated. Another perspective on motorcycle fatalities among youngMalaysians may be the aspect of ‘limited-choices’. A young fresh grad-uate in Malaysia may find it costly to buy a car and, due to poor publictransportation, he or she may instead opt for a motorcycle. In ruralareas, riding motorcycles is considered a tradition, and motorcyclesare passed down from generation to generation. It is convenient touse a motorcycle in plantations or paddy fields and along narrowpaths often connected to primary roads.

This study does not provide an understanding of young motor-cyclists' behaviour. The influence on, or motivation for, risky behav-iour in the local context for young motorcyclists is still unchartedterritory, although many international experts [42,45] point out thatdrugs, alcohol and suicidal tendency are prominent influences onsuch behaviour. The fact that the majority of the motorcyclists killedin accidents are young males [1] is irrefutable. However, alcohol,drugs and suicidal tendencies or urges are forbidden in Islam, whichis the prime religion in Malaysia. Thus, the socio-economic contextof motorcycle fatalities and the underlying causes have to be exploredfurther. The proportion of fatalities on straight road sections in goodweather conditions, and the large number of young males involvedindicate that further research should be directed to finding thecontributing factors.

39M.M. Abdul Manan, A. Várhelyi / IATSS Research 36 (2012) 30–39

One of the conclusions is that accident recording must be im-proved in Malaysia by establishing an injury recording system anddatabase based on hospital records to complement police records.Moreover, comprehensive traffic volume counts must be conductedon all road types in Malaysia in order to further analyse road user ex-posure and compare fatality risks on each road type. Malaysia stilllacks an understanding of the socio-economic scenario and behaviourof motorcyclists with respect to road safety. Thus, to reduce motorcy-cle fatalities, we have to understand why young male motorcycliststravelling on rural primary roads, especially on straight road sectionsin the evenings and weekends, are prone to fatal accidents.

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