Using a mobile phone while driving increases the risk of a road accident by 300 times. Director-General Datuk Suret Singh of the Malaysian Road Safety Department said on 27 July at the Malaysia/Singapore Scania Drivers 2007 competition, that he believed this research done in Swedish could also be used in Malaysia.
The department and the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research would, however, carry out its own study on the use of mobile phones while driving.
Singh said that in accidents involving heavy vehicles, an average of 200 lorry drivers and attendants die annually and the figure would likely increase to 800 annually year if the death of third parties were counted.
