:Penalty for rear seated passengers for not using safety belt upon availability: Ong

TAWAU: The Ministry of Transport Malaysia will impose penalties on rear seat passengers who fail to put on their seat belt for cars or utility vehicles having such facility by January 1, 2009 on vehicles produced from 1995 onward in the interest of safety.

Datuk Ong Tee Keat, the Minister of Transport Malaysia said the government had also requested Proton, Perodua, Naza and Honda manufactures to install vehicles from their factories free of charge to vehicles already on the road to lessen the burden of drivers.

`This is only for vehicles that comes out from their assembly line from 1995 and onward’, he stated in a press conference today at the district’s Road Transport Department (RTD) office today.

Ong added that vehicles without rear seat belts can be excluded from penalty but they would be given until 2011 to have their vehicle install the safety equipment. He also urges car owners who purchased vehicles from the four manufactures to have their vehicles upgraded for free at their respective manufactures and not simply to engage outsiders to do the work.

Ong was in the district on a working visit to see for himself the running operation of the RTD and met with representatives from the Tawau School Bus Association (TSBA), Tawau Taxi Association (TTA) and Tawau Lorry Drivers’ Association (TLDA) where numerous matters were brought to his attention. He said that he was shocked to hear some of the complains such as `Pirate school bus’ reportedly plying to ferry pupils and students at schools in the district and the existence of irregular fees charged by PUSPAKOM over vehicle check.

Other matters raise for his attention was the high fee charged for taking driving lessons.

Ong in the meeting with the three associations however pledge to take the appropriate action over the cases reported despite some of the matter were not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry.

`On the matter of pirate school bus, I hope that the association will give their fullest co-operation when we pursue the case to ensure that the appropriate action can be taken’, he added.

On the matter of long queue at RTD counters, he said that his Ministry is currently encouraging the public to use their on-line method to eradicate the needs of many having to queue and to speed up any process needed through the internet. He was also briefed by the Sabah RTD director Wan Idrus that runners or agencies providing services to the general public are given a special lane in the state to prevent their applications hampering the public waiting in line.

PICTURE SHOWS ONG DURING THE MEETING.