THE Hari Raya festivities always have one down side to it – the extremely high number of road accidents.
With millions involved in the rush to balik kampung, the number of road accidents involving fatalities tend to take an unwanted spike.
Alarmingly, recent media reports highlight that data on Malaysian road fatalities resemble those from war zones.
As of March 30, official statistics indicate that a road accident occurs roughly every 50 seconds in Malaysia with someone losing their life every “1 hour and 56 minutes” due to a road accident.
In Johor, 1,328 accident cases with 15 deaths were recorded throughout Op Selamat Aidilfitri in 2023 while 1,069 cases with 14 deaths were recorded last year.
It was also stated that 97% of accident cases during Op Selamat Aidilfitri in Johor over the past two years were caused by negligence of highway users while the rest involved technical issues such as vehicle malfunctions and road factors.
However, one netizen on X chose to dispute these factors. Not with the high number of incidences in Johor but to the cause.
Der Wanderer (@ahnafirsyad) contended that many accidents occurred due to the uncivilised and reckless manner in which Johoreans commandeer their vehicles.
Kau pernah terfikir kenapa eksiden maut banyak kat Johor?
No to offend victims, tapi kebenaran pahitnya,
Orang Johor bawak keter memang pelesit.
Takleh ada jalan straight langsung. Mesti nak cucuk2 nak lampu2.
Orang Penang drive lagi elok dari Johor.
— Der Wanderer (@ahnafirsyad_76) March 28, 2025
To ram home the point, he also included a video of an accident involving cars with Johor registration plates (the video was first uploaded on X by @anthrax781).
His observation has already generated over 650K views with many netizens keen to share their two sen worth.
Some who were seemingly unconvinced by the claim pressured the poster to provide statistical evidence. One even summoned the might of Grok (X’s artificial intelligence bot) to confirm or dispel this claim.
But even before Grok could respond, one netizen kindly produced the relevant data showing Johor to be in second place (the first spot went to Selangor).
One commenter even sought to deflect the blame by claiming Johor was home to many out-of-towners.
Another placed the blame squarely at the door of Singaporean drivers whom he described as “ill-mannered” (the commenter who had previously lived in Penang for 10 years further opined that Penangites are even more reckless than Johoreans).
However, more than one agreed with the poster. One netizen thought he was alone in thinking Johor drivers were reckless. He pointed out that drivers of heavy vehicles were especially culpable. In this regard, he thought that Penangites are better drivers than Johoreans.
Speaking from work experience, another netizen said he was shocked at the number of road accident claims he had to process in a month.
Whether road accidents are indeed linked to driver behaviour from specific states is open to conjecture. What is not in doubt though is the extremely high number of road accidents that is turning the festive season into a battlefield.
Please drive safely this Hari Raya season. This should be a time of celebration, not mourning. – April 2, 2025
