MOST ROAD DEATHS IN MALAYSIA DUE TO DRIVERS' BEHAVIOUR

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's high accident rates, giving the country the world's top spot with the most road deaths per 100,000 residents as reported by the International Transportation Forum (ITF) last year, is mainly due to drivers' behaviour.

Veteran psychiatrist Dr M. Mahadevan said that the majority of
aggressive road users and those who beat red lights are people who belong to the
Type A personality group.

"People with Type A personality cannot easily follow a set of rules until
and unless they consciously tell themselves to. Mostly it is Type A
personalities who are prone to beating red lights as they are always on the go,"
he said in a statement here Wednesday.

Malaysian Psychologist Centre president Dr Edward Chan said highly
competitive and task driven people are always in a hurry to get to their
destinations and this was a big factor for road accidents.

"Type A personalities are usually impatient, and this manifests on the road
when drivers try to overtake the slower cars in front of them," he said.

According to a study conducted by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety
Research (Miros), out of 41,560 accidents recorded in 2008, 10,862 accidents
were caused by the behaviour of reckless drivers.

The cause of accidents include speeding, driving too close, careless
driving, dangerous overtaking and ignoring traffic light signals.

The study also showed that from a total of 9,095 fatal accidents recorded in
2008, 1,630 fatalities were caused by the drivers.

-- BERNAMA