Yesterday, 7 May, there was a Parliament Sitting which lasted about six hours.
Among the many topics discussed, the accident at a junction in Tampines in April was brought up.
In case you haven’t been in the loop, the devastating accident involving six vehicles resulted in at least two deaths.
Here’s what our MPs discussed yesterday.
Reviewing the Junction’s Safety – No Prior Accidents at the Junction
Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor started off by expressing her “deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims” and assuring the MPs that maintaining road safety is a priority.
She stated that the roads and cars in Singapore are “designed with safety in mind” and that the design of the roads is “in accordance with international safety requirements”.
“These include sufficient line of sight for road users to see each other clearly, and appropriate road kerbs, lane and arrow markings installed conspicuously”
She added that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) continues to “review, develop and implement programs that enhance road safety”.
These were in response to questions by eight MPs regarding road safety. One of which came from Minister of State for Home Affairs Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim who asked for data on fatal accidents and their causes over the last five years.
She said that there was no feedback on the safety issues at the junction before the crash, and there were no serious accidents resulting in serious injuries or fatalities at the junction in the last five years.
Reviewing Existing Driving Penalties
Associate Professor Faishal mentioned that while the number of accidents has reduced by 10% between 2019 and 2023, the number of accidents that led to deaths rose by 12%.
He added that:
- 2.4% of fatal accidents that happen every year were due to reckless or dangerous driving causing death
- 27% of fatal accidents every year were due to speeding investigated
These led MPs Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC), Mr Vikram Nair (Sembawang GRC) and Mr Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC) to ask if there was a need to review existing penalties.
Dr Faishal reminded us that a first-time offender will face imprisonment of two to eight years while a repeat offender will be liable for up to 15 years.
This is in addition to the possibility of disqualification from the roads for at least 10 years after the offender is released from prison.
This is to say that the current laws we have today are “already quite stiff” according to Dr Faishal.
Public Education on Safe Driving
Dr Faishal also spoke at length about measures to encourage drivers to have safer driving behaviours, mentioning the safety driving course that they can attend to remove four demerit points from their record.
Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC) also chimed in on the topic of increasing awareness, calling for more effort to improve driving culture.
Dr Faishal agrees with Ms Sylvia Lim and called for stakeholders to collaborate with the Ministry to “organise events and campaigns to promote road safety”.
He added that the Traffic Police (TP) will be “publishing a series of road safety videos in the second half of 2024”.
These efforts are aimed at developing a “culture of responsible road usage”.
Enforcement Measures
Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang) asked about whether TP use videos uploaded on social media capturing drivers who are dangerous on the road. Dr Faishal responded saying that those clips are taken seriously during investigations.
In response to Mr Saktiandi, Mr Patrick Tay (Pioneer) and Ms Tin Pei Ling (MacPherson), Dr Faishal said that TP has been gradually activating the speed enforcement function in the red-light cameras across Singapore. This is especially done in accident/violate-prone areas.
He said that although such cameras are helpful in preventing speeding, it isn’t practical to install them at all of the traffic junctions and zebra crossings because of the infrastructure.
The Bottom Line
As Dr Faishal said, “Most accidents happen because of poor road behaviour, rather than inexperience”.
It’s a call-out to those road-ragers out there who need to exercise some patience.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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