SUCH has been the idea that is constantly mooted whenever there is a fatal road accident involving a senior citizen behind the wheel which runs afoul of the notion that one gets more efficient with age.
In the latest episode, a barber identified as 28-year-old Muhammad Faiz Sulaiman died after the motorcycle he was riding was hit by a sports utility vehicle (SUV) in an accident at Bulatan Ayer Leleh in Melaka on Wednesday (June 17).
In the incident at about 10am, the victim was confirmed dead at the scene due to severe head and body injuries.
Initial investigations found that the victim who was travelling on his Honda RSX 150 from Bukit Cina towards Semabok. according to Acting Central Melaka District Police chief Superintendent Halim Abas.
That was when an Omoda 9 driven by a 64-year-old man was heading out of the roundabout from Bukit Serindit towards Semabok.
Initial police investigations found that the car driver is believed to have not noticed the motorcycle coming from the right and hit the victim who was run over by the car which only came to a halt after some 25 metres.
The victim’s body was sent to the Forensic Medicine Department of the Melaka Hospital for a post-mortem while the SUV driver was detained to assist in the investigation in addition to been subject to undergo blood and urine tests.
The police have obtained the dashboard recording (dashcam) of the vehicle involved with the case being investigated under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 which penalises a person who causes death of another by driving on a road recklessly, at a dangerous speed or in a dangerous manner.
Blame game
The accident was reported by news portal Melaka Hari Ini in a Facebook post which sadly triggered racial slur with a handful of commenters linking the accident to the ethnical background of both the car driver and victim.
Instead of just proposing that “a driving re-test is necessary for drivers age 60 to 80”, one triggered unpleasant exchanged by insinuating that “there’re many cases involving rich old Chinese” while recalling the Petaling Jaya accident between “a zig-zagging Proton X70 at high speed” driven by a 70-year-old and a food delivery rider.
Apparently, such trend of racial slur been bandied about has become an unhealthy commonplace on social media whenever road accidents involving two parties of different ethnic groups occurred.
Can’t Malaysians avoid associating race of the other party even if one has personal experience as in the case of one motorcyclist who claimed to have a close shave “with a 84-year-old Chinese uncle who suddenly braked in the middle of the road to pick up a call”?
Therefore, kudos to netizens who are able ‘to generalise’ their viewpoints on the above fatal accident rather than politicising them.
Just say it aloud that senior citizens need to be compelled to a re-test of their driving skills by the Road Transport Department (JPJ) to avoid road mishaps or even subject to medical check-up to rid “old age recklessness” if such measure is deemed necessary.
This is plain simple, right? – June 19, 2026
