WHO lists five road safety tips Malaysians already know and are reminded to follow

PETALING JAYA: With almost 600,000 road accidents resulting in over 6,000 deaths in Malaysia last year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has come out with five main safety tips during festive seasons.

First on the list is reducing speed.

"Speed reduction helps to prevent a road crash from happening, since at lower speeds we have better control (over) the machine and (on the road)," it said in a travel advisory.

Secondly, it stressed the importance of seatbelts to reduce risk of injury from impact by 50%.

"An unrestrained adult passenger in the rear seat will not only endanger themselves but also will be moving around in a crash and cause harm to other occupants (who may be) belted," it said.

The third step was the use of child restraint seats for children below 135cm and 36kg which could lead to a 71% reduction in deaths among infants, it said.

"The fourth would be sufficient sleep and rest, six to eight hours before travel, daily for at least three days before the travel and not limited to only a day before travel.

"This is because there is an issue of sleep debt which occurs when there is insufficient sleeping time and this debt cannot be cleared immediately with a day of rest," it explained.

Lastly, the advisory encourages the use of public transport, especially rail-based systems, as they do not share the same route as other modes of transport.

"Globally countries with good rail-based public transport systems record lower road crashes and fatalities," it added.