Final Examiners Are JPJ Officers, So Why Punish Driving Schools?

JPJ officers are the final examiners of driving school students, so why should the driving school be penalised when former students are involved in road accidents?

The debacle between driving schools and JPJ continues as CT Balan, the Operations Director of a driving school, Safety Driving Centre, said JPJ had no right to penalise driving schools as its JPJ officers are the final examiners of the students.

According to a report by FMT, Balan has come out and said that it would be wrong for JPJ to penalise driving schools that adhered to the syllabus and guidelines provided by the department.

"How can JPJ penalise driving schools when we follow its syllabus? In fact, the examiners for the final exam to judge a driver's competence and adherence to all road regulations are from JPJ itself", said Balan.

Instead, Balan reckons that JPJ should concentrate on enforcement instead of blaming driving schools for the high number of road offences and accidents.

"Enforcement is very loose, and road offenders can easily get away with little to no punishment," he said. "The authorities must be stricter and more consistent in enforcing the law."

Balan added that JPJ should introduce a mandatory defensive driving course for all drivers to take after the two-year probationary licence period to help decrease the high number of road accidents and offences.

"If drivers are required to go back for a defensive driving course, they could refresh their knowledge on road regulations and leave with more confidence in handling their vehicles and knowledge on road safety," he said.

Balan is also not alone in the opinion that it is unfair to penalise driving schools as Law Teik Hua, the Head of Universiti Putra Malaysia's Road Safety Research Centre, agreed that it would be unfair for JPJ to penalise them.

Instead, he thinks that we should better implement the Demerit Points System, which is around but ineffective.

"The tools are there. Why not improve them and make them highly visible to the public?" We need to think about the Demerit Points System for Traffic Offences (Kejara), which is still around but seems to be ineffective," he said.

The Kejara system was introduced and implemented in 2017. A motorist accumulates demerit points for every traffic offence they commit. When the maximum number of points is reached, his driving licence is suspended or revoked.

It has proven to be effective in other countries, but it has yet to prove itself locally since it has not been adequately enforced here. 

An article by The SUN Daily, interviewing the former Road Safety Research Director-General, Dr. Wong Shaw Voon suggested that the general perception in Malaysia is that Kejara is just another stream of revenue for the government. 

To prove this wrong, JPJ would have to revisit Kejara and enforce it properly, as it can effectively squash bad general perceptions and road accidents as well as destructive driving behaviours. 

Between January and September 2021, 255,532 road accidents and 3,302 road deaths were reported.