THE Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) has recorded  46,571 vehicle-related road accident cases from 2019 to May this year involving vehicles without insurance and road tax coverage.

Utusan Malaysia reported  the highest number of cases recorded last year were 11,336 cases (24.34%) which raises concerns as Malaysia recorded only 5,707 accidents in the whole of 2021.

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Head of the Road Safety Research Center Prof Associate Dr Law Teik Hua expressed his concern over the rising accidents without road tax and insurance, highlighting the significant risks.

“If an accident occurs with a vehicle without insurance, the victim faces difficulties in obtaining adequate compensation for the losses suffered. In fact, they had to bear the cost of repairing their own vehicles.

“Furthermore, this situation puts accident victims at risk of bearing their own medical costs if the at-fault driver does not have insurance to cover the cost of their treatment,” he said as quoted by the daily.

Section 15 (1) of the Road Transport Act (APJ) 1987 (Act 333) for motor vehicle licence offences and Section 90(1) of the APJ 1987 are violations that fall under traffic offences.

According to PDRM records, a total of 24,866 cases have been registered for violations under Section 15(1) of the Road Act (APJ) 1987 (Transport Act 333) for the period from January 2019 to May 2024. Those determined under this section will result in a fine not less than RM300 and not more than RM5,000.

So far, 21,705 cases have been registered for offences under Section 90(1) APJ 1987 for January 2019 to May 2024.

Offenders who are convicted by allowing a motor vehicle to be used with insurance would be slapped a fine not exceeding RM2,000 or imprisoned for a term not exceeding six months. In in the case of a second or subsequent conviction, they would be fined not exceeding RM4,000 or imprisoned for a period not exceeding 12 months or both.

Law suggests addressing the increasing issue of vehicles without road tax through effective public awareness campaigns and stricter government laws on road tax and insurance ownership.

“Additionally, the system to detect vehicles without valid road tax or insurance needs to be improved. This includes the use of technology such as road surveillance cameras and automatic identification systems (ANPR),” he said as quoted by Utusan. — TMR