Dangers of Drinking and Driving in Malaysia

Abstract

Drunk driving is nothing new in Malaysia, which contributes to car crashes and road trauma. Driving in the influence of alcohol or called as drinking and driving has a high possibility of serious injuries even with a low supposition of alcohol. It has been found that while driving under the influence of alcohol, the risk of having an accident causing injury or death increases exponentially. This study is based on three objectives, specifically;

• investigating the dangers of drinking and driving,
• exploring the effects of alcohol on driving,
• studying the law enforcement to curb drinking driving in Malaysia.

Data collection was conducted with 34 random people at an institution in Malaysia involving 24 women and 10 men. The result of the study shown the highest impact of drunk driving is fatal accidents, most of the effect of alcohol on driving is reduced attention and concentration while driving and the laws and penalties of enforcement against drunk driving need to be tightened up. This study can help adolescents and others to fight against drinking driving to understand the effects and consequences also join some preventive actions to create awareness related to this problem.

Introduction

Driving under drug or alcohol influence (DUI) is one of the well-documented risk factors for road traffic accidents (WHO, 2004). The rate of accidents caused by drinking and driving shows an increase in Malaysia for the past few years. The drunk driving issues are often seen recently on television screens and newspapers involving accidents and death. Despite, the behaviour of drinking and driving may result in various negative and devastating effects. According to The Star (2019), Malaysia has the highest fatality rate from road traffic accidents in Asia. Drunk driving was one of the contributors to fatal accidents in Malaysia.

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Problem Statement

The data statistic consists of death, serious injury, and minor injury involved in drunk driving accidents. The table below shows an increasing total number of people involved started with 83 people in 2010 and keep on increasing in 2016 with 461 total number of people involved. But, the total number of people involved in drunk driving accidents decreased in 2017 and 2018. The highest total number of people involved in drunk driving accidents was recorded in 2015 with 420 people and the highest death was recorded in 2016 with 237 people.

Research of the Malaysian Institute of Road and Safety (MIROS) (2012) stated that an accident caused by a drunk driver is probably 13 times more compared to one driving under no influence. This can be seen from the number of dead people caused by drunk driving accidents in Malaysia. How dangerous are drinking and driving? Why is it bad to drink and drive? All these questions necessarily have subjective answers.

Research Questions

1. How dangerous are drinking and driving?
2. What are the effects of alcohol on driving?
3. It is enough law enforcement to curb drinking and driving in Malaysia?

Purpose of the study

1. To investigate the dangers of drinking and driving.
2. To explore the effects of alcohol on driving.
3. To study law enforcement to curb drinking and driving.

Research Methods

This case study carried out by using a method of quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative method was conducted through a survey by google form involving 34 random people at an institution in Malaysia by collecting information from a pool of respondents by asking multiple questions. This survey is conducted anonymous and consists of 15 questions including their information such as age and gender. This case study carried out their concern and suggestions according to this problem which is the dangers of drinking and driving in Malaysia. Resources such as articles and newspaper including a website are also used as a reference and research to this study.

Findings

Dangers of Drinking and Driving

This section will explain the dangers of drinking and driving that give a bad impact from respondent’s opinion which had been collected using google form. The respondents were asked about the impacts of drunk driving. The option is given including overspeed and dangerous overtaking, car damage and car crashes, fatal accidents, disrespect traffic signs, and others.

Based on the chart, most of the respondents agreed that a fatal accident is the common impact of drunk driving with a percentage of 91.2%. Followed by overspeed and dangerous overtaking with 25 respondents ticked for it. Next, car damage and car crashes with 67.6% also 13 respondents voted for disrespect traffic signs. Besides that, the respondents also give their opinions about the impacts of drunk driving which are cause someone’s death, might kill someone, and lead to an accident with others.

The research done by MIROS (2012) showed that 23.3% of drivers in accidents were tested positive of alcohol. According to The Star (2020), statistics showed that there were 2,364 accidents related to drinking driving, with 1,196 people killed. Drinking and driving do not only endanger your life, but it also endangers other people’s lives.

In Malaysia recently one accident was reported involving husband and wife, a 39-year-old man was killed and his wife was seriously injured after their motorcycle was hit by a car driven by a man believed to be intoxicated (Nortajuddin, 2020).

Hence, it shows that drinking and driving is a serious problem and caused extreme impacts such as fatal accidents, someone’s death, and severe injury, the number of deaths could be higher if no effective action taken. This can conclude how dangerous drinking and driving can be.

The Effects of Alcohol on Driving

This section will describe the effects of alcohol on driving. Respondents were given a question as in Chart 2 below, the question is to explore the effects of alcohol on driving based on respondent’s concerned.

Based on the chart, all the options shown were the effects of alcohol on driving. The question was given to know about their concerns about the effects of alcohol on driving. Alcohol and Drug Foundation (2017) stated that alcohol is a depressive drug. This slows down the central nervous system function as the brain and also can have a significant effect on your safe driving capability. The effects of alcohol increase the likelihood of a crash since it produces ‘poor judgment’, ‘increased reaction time’, and ‘decreased visual acuity’ (WHO, n.d.).

Then, the effects of alcohol on driving including reducing attention and concentration, blurred vision and impaired hearing, lost control of speed, and disrupt balance and coordination. The percentage of 73.5% is the highest with a total number of 25 respondents agreed that the effect of alcohol on driving was lost control of speed.

Firstly, the effect of alcohol on driving is to reduce your attention and concentration. According to Galbicsek in 2019, consuming too much alcohol is likely to affect your concentration while driving such as ‘staying on your lane’, ‘your speed’, ‘other cars on the road’, and ‘traffic signals’.

Secondly, the effect of alcohol on driving causes blurred vision and impaired hearing. Galbicsek stated that excessive consumption of alcohol can harm your vision. This impaired vision can affect you while driving which will influence you to measure the gap between your car and other on-road vehicles.

Next, disrupts your balance and coordination also one of the effects of alcohol on driving. So much alcohol affects your ‘motor skills’ such as coordination with your head, hands, and foot. You may not be able to avoid an imminently dangerous situation while driving without vital co-ordinating skills (Galbicsek, 2019).

Despite, all the effects which reduce attention and concentration, cause blurred vision and impaired hearing, lost control of speed, and disrupts balance and coordination were closely related to each other that can cause the same impact, putting you at risk for causing accident or highway injury.

The Law of Enforcement to Curb Drinking and Driving

This section will explore the law of enforcement to curb drinking and driving in Malaysia. In all states in Malaysia, the limit of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is 0.8 and below.

According to section 44 of the road transport act 1987, it states that a person who drives intoxicating or the BAC levels exceed the legal limits and causing injury or death is guilty of an offense. The offender has to pay a fine RM8,000 up to RM20,000 and jail time of a minimum of 3 years.

A person can commit an offense just by being in charge of a vehicle if the BAC levels are too high according to section 45 and 45A of the road transport act 1987. The offenders also need to pay the fine to this section and also have jail time as shown in Table 2 above.

The majority of respondents believed that there is enough law enforcement to curb drinking and driving with a percentage of 52.9%. Followed by 47.1% of respondents not agree and it is only a small gap between them.

The respondents were also asked about their suggestions and opinion according to the effective ways to reduce accidents caused by drunk driving. The ways are included tighten up laws and penalties, breath test checks systematically, influence through the mass media, and lectures in school/driving school. The other effective ways suggested by the respondents were the driver should be punished heavily, lower the BAC limit, and suspended the driver’s license.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the impacts of drunk driving such as Overspeed and dangerous overtaking, car damage and car crashes, fatal accidents, disrespect traffic signs, and others prove how dangerous is drinking and driving. Based on the statistic, the drinking and driving accidents are on decrease recently but remain a huge problem in today’s society. Many people have had their lives ruined and shattered because of a drunk driver.

Understanding the effects of alcohol on driving such as reduced attention and concentration, blurred vision and impaired hearing, lost control of speed, and disrupt balance and coordination also important to prevent accidents, and so on. The law in Malaysia (road of transport 1987) shows effective enforcement, the statistic of cases drunk driving accidents slowly decreasing in 2017 and 2018. However, the current limit of BAC in Malaysia is 0.8, while most another country now uses 0.5 limits of BAC. The law in Malaysia also needs to do some future implementation plans to curb drinking and driving.

References

1. Athira Nortajuddin (2020, April 26). Drunk driving on the rise in Malaysia. The Asean Post. Retrieved from https://theaseanpost.com/article/drunk-driving-rise-malaysia
2. Carol Galbicsek (2019, July 24). Drinking and Driving (DUI). Alcohol Rehab Guide. Retrieved from https://www.alcoholrehabguide.org/alcohol/crimes/dui/
3. Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF) (2017, April 5). Alcohol and driving. Retrieved from https://adf.org.au/insights/alcohol-and-driving/
4. Norlen M, Wahida AB, Nurul Kharmila A, and etc (2012, October 2). Alcohol and Drug Use Among Fatally Injured Drivers in Urban Area of Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research. Retrieved from https://www.miros.gov.my/xs/dl.php?filename=MRR%2002%20(2012)%20Alcohol%20and%20Drug%20Use%20Among%20Fatally%20Injured%20Drivers%20in%20Urban%20Area%20of%20KL.pdf
5. World Health Organization (WHO) (n.d.). Why is a drinking and driving programme necessary? Retrieved from https://www.who.int/roadsafety/projects/manuals/alcohol/1-Why.pdf
6. World Health Organization (WHO) (2004). Road Safety – Alcohol. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/road_traffic/world_report/alcohol_en.pdf
7. United Nations ESCAP (n.d.). Drink Driving Management. Retrieved from https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/10-%20Country%20presentation-Drink%20Driving%20Management-Malaysia.pdf
8. The Star Says (2020, February 23). Value life, don’t drink and drive. The Star (online). Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/columnists/the-star-says/2020/02/23/value-life-dont-drink-and-drive
9. The Star Says (2019, May 14). We have the third highest death rate from road accidents. The Star (online). Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/health/2019/05/14/we-have-the-third-highest-death-rate-from-road-accidents
10. Mohd Nasir bin Nawawi, Nizam Ahmat, Samsufin Hazman (January 2018). Driver behaviour of road users in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Research Gate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331245980_DRIVER_BEHAVIOURS_OF_ROAD_USERS_IN_KLANG_VALLEY_MALAYSIA
11. Laws of Malaysia (n.d.). Road Transport Act 1987 as at 1 February 2013. Retrieved from http://www.agc.gov.my/agcportal/uploads/files/Publications/LOM/EN/Act%20333%20-%20Road%20Transport%20Act%201987.pdf