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Text Box: OSH PROFILE IN THE TRANSPORT SECTOR IN PARTICULAR COMMUTING HAZARD
 

 

 

 

 

 

 BY

NG WEI KHIANG

SELVA PONNIAH

 0N

JULY 30, 2003

 FOR

OSH DEPARTMENT

 MALAYSIAN TRADES UNION CONGRESS

 Contents

 

Page

 

 

1.0 Introduction

3

 

 

2.0 Legislation

4

 

 

3.0 OSH Scenario

5

3.1 Causes of Commuting Accident

5

3.2 OSH Initiatives

9

3.3 OSH Program for Company Driver

11

 

 

4.0 Conclusion  & Recommendations

13

 

 

5.0 Attachments

14

 

 

6.0 References

21

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.0 Introduction

 Generally, Transport sector is defined as industry which engages in the conveying of goods or people from one place to another. Under the Malaysia Social Security Organization (SOCSO) definition, Transport sector is classified into two sub-sectors namely, (i) Transportation and Storage, and (ii) Communication. The Transportation and Storage category is further subclassified into three major disciplines namely land, marine and air transport.

In terms of economy contribution, Transport sector has contributed RM 20,467 million in 2003 which is about 8.8 % of the Malaysia GDP (Ministry of Finance, 2003).

For the production of land vehicles, the statistic published by Malaysia Automobile Association (MAA) showed that the vehicle assemblers and manufacturers in Malaysia have a total combined capacity of 570,000 unit per annum. The production of the passenger cars and commercial vehicles from 1996 to 2001 is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Production of Automotive Industry

 

Category

 

1996

 

1997

 

1998

 

1999

 

2000

 

2001

(Jan-Jun)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Passenger Cars

254 881

362 088

148 960

272 304

295 318

165 701

Commercial Vehicles

84 899

150 306

12 751

31 415

63 877

34 707

Total

339 780

512 394

161 711

303 719

359 195

200 408

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: MAA, 2003.

In terms of registered vehicle, the percentage of registered vehicle in Malaysia is higher among the motorcyclist (53.1%) compared to car (36.7%) (MRSC, 2003).

In 2003, there are 16,424 registered employers in this sector, which is about 3.7% of the total registered employers and 200,449 registered employee, which is about 3.8 % of the total registered employees (SOCSO, 2003).

2.0 Legislation

The legislations that govern road transportation are Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board Act 1987 (Act 334) and Road Transport Act 1987 (Act 333). Under the New revision, reckless driving that causes death will be jailed for a period of 2 to 10 years or/and penalty RM 5,000 to RM 20,000 and suspension of driver’s license.

Under OSHA 1997, the responsibility of the employer and employee has been promulgated which include the duty of care to provide and ensure safety and health at the workplace including commuting safety. 

Sea transportation is governed by Malaysia Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1952 and Merchant Shipping (Central Mercantile Marine Fund) Rules 1984. Other are Port (Safety of Workers) Rules 1985 and Petroleum (Safety Measures) Regulation (Transportation of Petroleum by Water) 1985. In many cases, International Maritime law and regulations are referred such as International Maritime Organization (IMO) Convention on Preventing Collision at Sea 1972 (COLREGs). Additional legislation governed the vessel transporting petroleum are United Kingdom Oil Operator Association (UKOOA) or International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP) directives.

For air transportation, the respective legislation are Civil Aviation Act 1969, Civil Aviation Regulation 1996, Carriage by Air Act 1974, Extra-Territorial Offences Act 1967, Civil Aviation Offences Act 1984 and Airport and Aviation Services (Operating Company) Act 1991. The Malaysia Department of Civil Aviation has published directives and policies from time to time such as the Safe Air Transportation Policy.

The common reference standards on transportation of dangerous goods are European Council Directive 96/35/EC or United Nations substance numbers assigned to a dangerous good by the United Nations Committee of Expert on the Transportation of Dangerous Goods (UN List).

3.0 OSH Scenario

For aviation and marine transportation, there are national, international and industry specific guidelines and standard to be complied and are assessed prior to commissioning. This is true in light of the safety of the passenger and the effects of the goods to the sea environment in case of accident, which in most cases is catastrophic. The context of self-regulation is a common practice for these two sectors, in which safety measures have been developed from the design stage up to operational stage. During design stage, risk assessment and management studies shall be conducted by risk specialist such as Hazard and Effect management (HEMP) study, and control measures and prevention will be instituted in the system.

OSH in Malaysia air transportation industry has been reviewed by the local researcher and OSH risks have been identified (Ling KH, 1996). The common OSH hazards are atmospheric pressure, noise, shift work and infectious diseases among the flight crews and air traffic controller.

The highlight of the discussion will be on land transportation in particular commuting hazard. Besides commuting hazard which is a major concern in terms of severity and risk., heat stress from engine, especially long distance truck without air conditioning, shift work, vibration, noise and stress are also relevant to the driver. The effect of heat stress from engine has contributed to the low spermatogenesis. Shift work, vehicle vibration and noise cause fatigue and reduction of human performance. The issues pertaining to commuting safety is deriving from multiparty initiatives and program which are relevant to this sector.

3.1 Causes of Commuting Accidents

In Malaysia, under the Ministry of Transport, the Malaysia Road Safety Council (MRSC) has documented road accident statistic. At one time, Malaysia has the highest number of road accident per number of vehicles. For example, road accident fatality increased from 4,048 deaths in 1990 to 6,304 deaths in 1996. In terms of per 10,000 registered vehicles, the figure jumped from 7.41 per 10000 registered vehicles in 1990 to 8.2 per 10000 vehicles in 1996.

According to the statistic produced by Malaysia Road Safety Council, there are 14 causes of road accident in Malaysia. The main causes of road accident are (1) Speeding, 32.8%, (2) Careless driving, 28.2%, (3) Careless overtaking, 15.1%.  From the statistic, it showed that drivers’ behavior is the major cause of road accident, which contributed 76.1% of all the causes of road accident. Other factors are tailgating (drive too closely behind another vehicle), 3.8% and road condition, 3.0% (Table 2).

Among the road users, a study conducted by Road Safety Research Center (RSRC), University Putra Malaysia in 2002 showed that the relative risk of fatality was 1.5 times higher among the motorcyclist compared to other road users (RSRC, 2002).

Form the statistic published by MRSC and RSRC, the root causes for the unsafe driving behavior could be correlated to risk-taking behavior, lack of safe driving skill, low safety awareness or under the influence of drug and alcohol.

Table 2. Causes of Fatal Road Accident in Malaysia.

Factors

Percentage (%)

 

 

Overloading (Goods)

0.2

Overloading (Passenger)

0.4

Illegal Parking

0.2

Drink Driving

0.3

Careless Driving

28.2

Careless Cornering

11.7

Careless Overtaking

15.1

Tailgating

3.8

Speeding

32.3

Traffic light Violation

1.3

Road Conditions

3.0

Mechanical

2.0

Weather

1.0

Lack of Signal

0.4

 

 

Total

100

 

 

  Source: MRSC, 2002.

The statistic from Social Security Organization (SOCSO) showed that the number of reported commuting accident has risen from 14,771 in 1996 to 18,763 in 2001 (Table 3). In terms of per number of registered employees, the figure has jumped from 1.94 per 1000 workers to 2.14 per 1000 workers. Within the same year, the number of workplace accident excluding commuting accident has dropped from 22.4 per 1000 workers in 1996 to 16.5 per 1000 workers in 2001. It could be concluded that commuting accidents has become the major challenges in reducing workplace accident besides the accidents occurred in the small and medium sized enterprises (SME) which has been reported as the main contributor for the workplace accidents.

Table 3. Total Commuting Accident by Years

Year

Frequency

Per 1,000 employees

 

 

 

1996

14771

1.94

1997

13503

1.64

1998

16759

1.99

1999

18309

2.12

2000

19620

2.21

2001

18763

2.14

 

 

 

   Source: SOCSO Annual Report 2001.

In 2001, the Transport sector had recorded the second highest (20.8%) after Electricity, Gas, Water & Sanitary Service sector (26.1%), and about the similar case fatality of Construction sector (19.4%). When compare to industrial average, Transport sector was two times higher compared to industrial average. This alarming figure demonstrated that accident in this sector is at higher severity compared to other sectors (Table 4) and the cause of the severity is not deeply understood and further studies are needed.

Table 4. Distribution of Accidents and Fatality Frequency by Sectors

 

Industry

 

 

Indicator

 

1977

 

1980

 

1985

 

1990

 

2000

 

2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agricultural, forestry & fishing

Accidents

Fatality

Case fatality

 

374

7

18.7

5,550

5

0.9

1961

38

1.9

3897

134

3.4

11893

115

9.6

12424

75

6.0

Mining & quarrying

Accidents

Fatality

Case fatality

 

924

11

11.9

1640

18

10.9

1563

21

13.4

2644

12

4.5

626

11

17.5

573

7

12.2

Manufacturing & processing

Accidents

Fatality

Case fatality

 

28,068

30

1.0

31,801

36

1.1

28,592

54

1.8

54,925

86

1.5

41,331

282

6.8

35,642

243

6.8

Electricity, gas, water & sanitary service

Accidents

Fatality

Case fatality

 

179

1

5.5

177

3

16.9

106

6

56.6

860

2

2.3

537

8

14.8

499

13

26.1

Construction

Accidents

Fatality

Case fatality

 

6807

44

6.4

3323

16

4.8

4069

28

6.8

3123

40

12.8

4873

159

32.6

4593

89

19.4

Commerce

Accidents

Fatality

Case fatality

 

5312

15

2.8

4291

12

2.7

2843

21

7.3

13,893

38

2.7

15,452

151

9.7

13774

192

13.9

Transportation

Accidents

Fatality

Case fatality

 

2231

25

11.2

931

24

25.7

 

1174

32

27.2

2800

27

9.6

4778

98

20.5

4382

91

20.8

Financial & Insurance

Accidents

Fatality

Case fatality

 

4017

32

7.9

3627

29

7.9

3763

38

10.0

194

3

15.4

687

11

16.0

602

6

10.0

Services

Accidents

Fatality

Case fatality

 

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

569