More than 9.8 million vehicles on the road during Christmas season

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 9.8 million vehicles were on major highways and expressways during a five-day period over the Christmas holiday season, says Comm Datuk Mohd Azman Ahmad Sapri.

The Bukit Aman Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department director said the high volume of traffic began on Friday (Dec 22) and lasted until Tuesday (Dec 26), including the two toll-free days announced by the government.

“For PLUS highways, 2.03 million vehicles were on the road on Dec 22, followed by 2.01 million on Dec 23, 1.82 million on Dec 24, 1.72 million on Dec 26 and 1.95 million on Dec 26.

“For the Karak expressway and East Coast Expressway (LPT1), a total of 1.2 million vehicles used both routes during the same period,” he said when contacted on Thursday (Dec 28).

Comm Mohd Azman said a total of 8,028 accidents were reported during the same period.

“Of these, 75 were fatal accidents, 29 involved serious injuries and 303 involved minor injuries.

“The majority of the reports involved 7,621 vehicle breakdowns,” he said.

In conjunction with the holiday season, Comm Mohd Azman said his department launched Ops Lancar nationwide involving locations where major congestion was likely to occur.

“All our personnel on highways and expressways were assigned to monitor and assist in moderating traffic flow while those in states and districts were instructed to do so on federal, state and city roads.

“We identified six locations with expected congestion at PLUS highways, so smart lanes were activated and monitoring was carried out by our personnel and PLUS,” he added.

A total of 77 officers and 731 personnel were deployed at strategic locations nationwide, Comm Mohd Azman said.

“They were involved directly in moderating traffic for the convenience of all road users,” he said.