WHO's Drink Driving Stats “Inaccurate and Off the Mark”, Claims Malaysian Police

Kuala Lumpur: In response to World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015, police has dismissed the statistics collected on road deaths in Malaysia involving motorists who were caught driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. According to theSundaily report, the authorities have dismissed WHO's drink driving stats in Malaysia, claiming that the overall figure was “inaccurate and off the mark.”

“Statistics from the Traffic Department have shown that fatalities caused by drink-driving or driving under the influence of alcohol so far this year until September was only 16 cases or 0.004% from the overall fatalities statistics. The figures provided by the WHO recorded only the suspected cases and confirmed ones”, says the Head of Police Corporate Communications, Datin ACP Asmawati Ahmad.

Also Read: Malaysian Road Deaths Ratio Higher than World Average

According to WHO's 2015 Global Status Report, 23% of deaths involving motorcyclists and motorists in Malaysia were alcohol-related. Hence, the country got a score of 5 out of 10 for its efforts to enforce drink-driving laws.

“The 0.004% is the real indicator after police obtained the result of blood and urine samples of the victims from the Chemistry Department,” she clarified. In 2014, 193 cases (0.041%) of drink-driving were recorded while the year before saw a total of 207 cases (0.043%),” she claimed.

Also Read: Are Malaysian roads becoming safer or more dangerous?

Also, the Federal Traffic Police Chief, Mahamad Akhir Darus, says, “I wonder how WHO conducted the research and provided the poor marks on the rate of seat belt usage in the country. This is a foreign body and their method and findings are questionable.”

TheSundaily's report claims that police has also dismissed WHO's statistics on the Malaysia's rear seat belt compliance level as the body has given the country a score of 4 out of 10 for enforcement levels on implementing the national seat belt law. While the Federal Traffic Police Chief admitted that the rear seat belt compliance levels were still low, he felt that WHO's ratings were unjust considering  more and more awareness campaigns going on in the country.

Also Read: Malaysia rated poorly on road safety effectiveness – WHO