Number of commuting accidents show upward trend
Borneo Post Online, 4 October 2013
KUCHING: The number of deaths due to commuting accidents over the past 10 years from 2002 to last year has always been on the uphill trend throughout the country.
Revealing this here yesterday, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said out of 61,552 accident cases reported last year throughout the country about 40 per cent or 26,256 involved commuting accidents while 35,296 cases involved industrial mishaps.
“Based on the statistics obtained from Social Security Organisation (Socso) from 2002 to last year, there was an increase in the number of commuting accidents – 7,869 cases, which is very alarming,” he said.
He added that road mishaps occurring while travelling to and from work were always on the rise and up to June this year, a total of 13,679 commuting cases have been reported.
Lee told this at a news conference after closing a seminar on ‘OSH for Media’ organised by Niosh in collaboration with state Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) and state Socso at a leading hotel here yesterday.
“While there had been some drop in the number of industrial accidents on the other hand, the number of commuting accidents had always been on the upward trend although we have been looking for ways and means to bring it down,” he said.
He said they were uncertain of the actual causes for the rise except to say that they were mainly caused by human factors, such as bad driving habits and negative attitudes while travelling along public roads.
“Of course, apart from that we also do not deny that some of the cases occurred due to fatigue due to insufficient rests,” he said.
In this respect, he said, as spelled under Section 15 (2) (c) of the Occupation Safety and Health Act (OSHA) 1994, it was the duty of all employers to ensure that their workers were not only safe in their workplace but also while on their journey to and from home.
Lee, who is also National Security Council deputy chairman, said companies should make that their employees were not only exposed to information on occupational safety and health but most importantly was that they were being put into practice.
“As our CSR (corporate social responsibility) to the community, we are ever ready to help any organisation who wants to conduct related seminars and workshops to their staff,” he said.
During the event, Lee also distributed complementary copies of his book entitled ‘My Journey with OSH’ to invited guests and the various media organisations participating in the seminar.
Among those present at the occasion yesterday were state Socso director John Riba Marin, state DOSH director Mohd Hatta Zakaria and NIOSH officer Raemy Md Zein.
