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