Weather as a Road Safety Hazard in Malaysia - An … 03_2009 -Weather as a Road...iv MRev 03/2009 Weather as a Road Safety Hazard in Malaysia - An Overview 5.1 The Distinction between

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MRev 03/2009

MIROS Review Report

Weather as a Road Safety Hazardin Malaysia - An Overview

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF ROAD SAFETY RESEARCH

Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research Lot 125-135, Jalan TKS 1, Taman Kajang Sentral43000 Kajang, Selangor Darul EhsanTel +603 8924 9200 Fax +603 8733 2005Website www.miros.gov.my Email [email protected]

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF ROAD SAFETY RESEARCHZulhaidi Mohd Jawi

Mohd Hafzi Md IsaRohayu Sarani

Wong Shaw Voon, PhDAhmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah, PhD

MIROS Review ReportMRev 03/2009


Weather as a Road Safety Hazard in Malaysia - An Overview

Zulhaidi Mohd JawiMohd Hafzi Md Isa

Rohayu SaraniWong Shaw Voon, PhD

Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah, PhD

For citation purposes

Zulhaidi MJ, Mohd Hafzi MI, Rohayu S, SV Wong & Ahmad Farhan MS (2010), Weather as a Road Safety Hazard in Malaysia - An Overview, MRev 03/2009, Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research.

MIROS © 2010 All Rights Reserved

Published by:

Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS)Lot 125-135, Jalan TKS 1, Taman Kajang Sentral,43000 Kajang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

Printed by : Publications Unit, MIROSTypeface : Goudy Old StyleSize : 11 pt / 15 pt

DISCLAIMERNone of the materials provided in this report may be used, reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including recording or the use of any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from MIROS. Any conclusion and opinions in this report may be subject to reevaluation in the event of any forthcoming additional information or investigations.

Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Weather as a road safety hazard in Malaysia - an overview / Zulhaidi Mohd

Jawi ... [et al.]. (MIROS review report ; MRev 03/2009) ISBN 978-983-44643-4-9 1. Traffic safety--Malaysia. 2. Roads--Safety measures--Malaysia. I. Zulhaidi Mohd Jawi. II. Series. 363.1252109595

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MRev 03/2009Weather as a Road Safety Hazard in Malaysia - An Overview

Contents

Page

List of Tables vList of Figures viAcknowledgements viiAbstract ix

1.0 Introduction 1

2.0 Research Objective and Methodology 2

2.1 Research Motivation 2 2.2 Research Objective 2

2.3 Methodology and Report Structure 3

3.0 An Overview of Weather Hazards towards Road Users 3

3.1 Rainfall 4 3.1.1 Dry Spell Effect 5 3.1.2 Flood 5 3.2 Wind 6 3.3 Temperature 7 3.4 Sunlight 7

3.5 Fog 8

4.0 Malaysian Weather Profile and Potential Weather Hazards 9

4.1. An Overview of Malaysian Geography 9 4.2. Malaysian Weather Profile and Potential Weather Hazards to Local Road Users 11 4.2.1 Rain 11 4.2.2 Wind 13 4.2.3 Temperature 14 4.2.4 Sunlight 15 4.2.5 Fog 15 4.3 A Special Look into Weather Effects to Motorcyclist 16

5.0 Related Road Accidents Statistics in Malaysia – A Compilation and Discussion 17

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Weather as a Road Safety Hazard in Malaysia - An OverviewMRev 03/2009

5.1 The Distinction between Climatological and Weather Records 17 5.2 Malaysian Road Accident Data 17 5.3 Weather-Related Accident Data 18 5.4 Weather-Related Accident in Malaysian Major Highway 20

6.0 Preventive Measures Regarding Weather Hazards 21

6.1 Engineering Measures 22 6.2 Enforcement Measures 24 6.3 Educational Measures 25 6.4 Malaysia’s Efforts at a Glance 25 6.4.1 Road Engineering 26 6.4.2 Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) 28 6.4.3 Enforcement 29 6.4.4 Vehicle Profile 29 6.4.5 Media Contributions 30

7.0 Conclusion and Future Research Direction 30

References 33

Appendix 1 38 Appendix 2 39 Appendix 3 40 Appendix 4 45

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List of Tables

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Table 5-1 Overview of weather information in PDRM’s record system 18Table 5-2 Number of road accidents according to weather condition 19Table 5-3 Summary of accidents at PLUS according to weather classification (2003–2007) 21Table A1-1 General road accident statistics and fatality index in Malaysia 38 Table A2-1 General climate information (extreme cases) recorded by MMD 39Table A3-1 Details on the topography of MMD climatological stations 40Table A3-2 Number of rain days per year from 1997 to 2007 41Table A3-3 Frequency of dry spell period – gap between rain and no-rain days (1 to 7 consecutive days) for the period of 1997 to 2007 42Table A3-4 Frequency of dry spell period – gap between rain and no-rain days (7 days group) for the period of 1997 to 2007 43Table A3-5 Average wind speed and maximum wind speed 44Table A4-1 PLUS accident record according to weather condition 45

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List of Figures

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Figure 4-1 Malaysia Map 10Figure 6-1 An example of landslide prone area (rockslide) warning 27Figure 6-2 Crosswind warning sign (left) and wind sock planted nearby (right) alongside the North-South Expressway (PLUS) in Johor 28Figure 6-3 Motorcycle shelter type 1: Hut-style lay-by 28Figure 6-4 Motorcycle shelter type 2: Improvised space underneath high-level overpass 28Figure A1-1 Fatality rate per 10 000 vehicles for Malaysia 38

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express gratitude to all who gave their sincere help, support, interest and valuable hints towards completion of this report. Also, our sincere thanks to the previous Director-General of MIROS, Professor Dato’ Ir. Dr. Radin Umar Radin Sohadi, for providing his views and support to this study at the early stage. Special mention goes out to:

PLUS Expressway BerhadPuan Nik Airina Nik JaffarPuan Hajah Norbayati Haji Manap

Malaysian Meteorological DepartmentPuan Sharifah Faridah Syed Mahbar

Road Safety Research Center, Universiti Putra MalaysiaDr. Kulanthayan K.C. Mani

Malaysian Institute of Road Safety ResearchSharifah Allyana Syed Abd RahimAlvin Poi Wai HoongSiti Nazura Mohd SallehNoor Sharieza MohamadSiti Noor Zakyah HamsarKhairil Anwar Abu KassimMohd Khairudin RahmanAqbal Hafeez AriffinAzhar HamzahHazrul Affandy Hamalitdin

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Abstract

There may be various reasons associated to be the causes of road accidents, and they may be categorised into two main groups – transport demand and unsafe operation. Weather condition, particularly the adverse weather phenomenon, is one of the unsafe operation issues that could undermine the qualities in all aspects of road transportation and thus, increasing the risk of road accidents and casualties. The main objective of this report is to gather related information on accident issues that are weather-related and to reveal that our road transportation is also made riskier by adverse weather conditions even though it is not as serious as snow-related problems. The discussion begins with an overview of the subject matter based on global research, and followed by the situation in Malaysia which includes local weather profile, the statistics on weather-related accidents in the past years and the preventive measures undertaken up to now. In-depth research efforts are required in the future especially in determining the risk of weather-related accidents to local road users.

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1.0 Introduction

Road transportation is an important mode of transport in Malaysia that ensures both mobility of people and delivery of goods. Transportation in Malaysia has been dominated by road transportation ever since the introduction of road network at the end of the 19th century (Ahmad and Azmi 2006). In the last two decades, Malaysia has experienced a significant expansion in all portions of country’s development including road transportation sector. The total length of paved roads has surpassed 70 000 kilometres mark (Radin Umar 2005), and this number is expected to increase significantly as the government allocated RM18.6 billion (USD 4.9 billion) on road development in the current 9th Malaysian Plan. The Malaysia Plan is a series of consecutive five-year plans that was introduced by the government in 1963 (Ahmad and Azmi 2006).

The mobility of Malaysia’s approximately 26 million people in 2003 was more than 90 percent covered by road transportation, either by private car (64%) or public transport (30%) (Ahmad and Azmi 2006). Moreover, Malaysian people have a very high tendency to choose their personal vehicle rather than public transport since the majority of respondents in a public survey believed that they can travel faster and have “mobility freedom” not offered by the local public transport (Abdalla et al. 2007).

The aforementioned remarks could be linked to the fact that this country recorded a considerable number of road accidents and related casualties. The performance of the country’s road safety index has shown a desirable trend despite the significant increase in the number of population, registered vehicle and road length (Appendix 1). However, the road accidents statistics in terms of the actual number of accidents, injuries and fatalities are still not satisfactory. The amount of fatalities, for example, in the period of 11 years from 1996 until 2006 recorded around five to six thousand fatalities each year (Appendix 1).

There may be various reasons pertaining to the same number of death tolls due to road accidents each year; but these reasons essentially come from these two sets of factors that affect the rate and severity of accident – transport demand and unsafe operation (Andrey et al. 2001). The former set is related to any

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traffic exposure such as high volume of vehicles and road traffic characteristics, while the latter set is basically related to risky vehicle operation pertaining to drivers, vehicle condition, roads as well as environmental influence.

Weather, or particularly adverse weather condition, is one of the environmental risk factors that affect the performance of all main components in a “moving vehicle” – which includes the driver, vehicle condition and its performance, and prevailing road condition. Even though there are very limited numbers of research that associate adverse weather and road accidents being carried out from local perspective, research works in many countries have proven that adverse weather, in the form of snow, rain, storm, strong wind, excessive heat and fog, are safety threats to all road users. Adverse weather that is by and large associated with precipitation will reduce road friction, lessen driver visibility and impair one’s driving performance in many ways (Rowland et al. 2007; Andrey et al. 2003a).

2.0 Research Objective and Methodology

2.1 Research Motivation

The important note in addressing the “weather-road safety” issues is that the effects of weather variables contributing to road accidents do not only vary from one country to another country, but also from one place to another in the same country. This is basically influenced by the topography, demography, socio-economy and several other factors of a particular place which has enabled a unique integration between transportation and weather. This fact is a strong motivation to acquire knowledge on the related topics in terms of local environment.

2.2 Research Objective

The main goal of this report is to show that weather is another prominent hazard to road safety in Malaysia. In addition to increasing our knowledge on road safety in terms of local environments, this report could also serve as a guide for the expansion of in-depth research for the subject matter in the future.

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2.3 Methodology and Report Structure

This exploratory report started with the gathering of various sources of information such as peer-reviewed journals, books, websites, reports, and accident database. The keywords used in the search, among others, include “weather-related accidents” (also crashes), “precipitation” and “transportation hazard”. The information is then summarised in Section 3 to give an overview of weather hazards based on weather elements. Most of the information is based on research in other countries since there is very limited information of the subject matter in the Malaysian context.

Section 4 mainly discusses Malaysia’s weather profile as well as speculations on the potential hazards that the local weather presents to the road users. Again, after the overview of Malaysian geographical profile, the subject matter is discussed based on weather elements that hopefully portray necessary linkages and better understanding with the previous section. This section ends by highlighting motorcycle issues related to weather since this mode of transport is the most popular in the country as well as being the most vulnerable road user based on the number of fatalities.

The discussion continues on related road accident statistics in Section 5, where the shortcomings in the national database are highlighted. A comparison is made between the filtered national figures and the Malaysian major highway network accident record – as the least possible way to describe current situation in Malaysia. Section 6 starts with preventive measures regarding weather hazards based on intervention characteristics and it ends with an overview of related efforts implemented in Malaysia.

3.0 An Overview of Weather Hazards towards Road Users

This section provides an overview of the effects of each weather element on road safety. The weather elements are rainfall (precipitation), wind, temperature, sunlight and fog. Snow, in many kinds of its presence such as snow shower, sleet and snow flurry, has never been a threat to Malaysian road users. Thus, the focus of the quest in precipitation issues is channelled to

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rainfall, which is another weather element that has received equal coverage in worldwide research as snow-related problems.

3.1 Rainfall

The term precipitation in meteorology is referred to the products from the process of condensation in the forms of snow, rain, or hail. Many studies in relation to precipitation had proven that its effects to the road transportation are significant towards accident rate and risk (e.g. Andrey and Yagar 1993; Andrey et al. 2003a) and accident severity (e.g. Fridstrom et al. 1995); beside the fact that accident risk and severity are greater in dry weather (Dry is paradoxically referred to as “normal”). Additionally, their findings depended on the methodology used and also limitations on acquisition of related data.

Basically, rainfall will mainly affect the road surface performance (e.g. Ivey et al. 1981) and visibility of the driver (e.g. Ivey et al. 1975; Andrey et al. 2001). The two critical aspects of tyre-pavement friction problems are depth of water on the road surface and the duration of time that the road is in wet condition. The overall performance of wet road surface is also associated with pavement texture, travel speed, tyre tread, tyre air-pressure and ambient temperature (Andrey et al. 2003b).

The presence of water, specifically film of water, on the road surface also creates the infamous complex phenomenon – hydroplaning, or also known as aquaplaning. Hydroplaning happens when the frictional force is reduced between tyre and road surface caused by “the pressure increase of the water film above the contact pressure of tyre and road” (Okano and Koishi 2001). The likelihood of hydroplaning happening depends on the road skid resistance, tyre tread depth as well as the instantaneous vehicle speed (SWOV 2007). There is also a situation whereby a drizzle can produce a thin film of liquid on the road surface. It is called viscous hydroplaning for the reason that it consists of mixture of oil and dust on the road surface, collected when it has not been raining for a long while, together with water. This situation also diminishing the road friction but its effect decreases if heavy rain occurs (Eisenberg 2003).

Even though there are no comprehensive models that explain driver visibility problem in terms of accident risk, the effect of adverse weather towards the

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problem is well known among drivers and it is fair to say that everyone finds it to be a distraction while behind the wheel. Visibility can be reduced to approximately 50 metres during heavy rain, as it also does in snow and thick fog (SWOV 2007). The visibility of drivers might be impaired by low ambient illuminence, small droplet size, inappropriate windscreen wiper speed and splash-and-spray from other vehicles (Andrey et al. 2001).

3.1.1 Dry Spell Effect

Dry spell effect, or spell effect, takes place when a consecutive series of days without measurable rainfall is broken by the first rain after that period (Keay and Simmonds 2006). In other words, it is the period when the first rain occurs since the last rain, and the spell may take place in couple of days, or even weeks or months. As explained earlier, viscous hydroplaning has a high tendency to occur following a spell break if it is not a heavy rain. On the other hand, dry spell effect is also supposed to be responsible for readjustment of drivers with the road condition and environment. The possibility is that drivers have “forgotten” the appropriate skills to drive in wet condition (raining or snowing) after being exposed to normal (dry) driving condition for a long time (Keay and Simmonds 2006).

Some studies carried out in other countries have looked into the effect of dry spell in terms of accident risk (e.g. Keay and Simmonds 2006; Brodsky and Hakkert 1988) and accident rate (e.g. Eisenberg 2003). Keay and Simmonds (2006) found that the effect of the spell is increasing if the spell period is longer but also depending on the rain amount. Brodsky and Hakkert (1988), in his study in Israel, found that rain has presented greater risk as the period of infrequent rain is compared to period of copious rain. Eisenberg (2003) has looked into a set of daily accident counts data for 17 states in the span of 1990–1999. He found that the non-fatal accident rate has increased in a linear fashion as the spell period increases for several spell-day classes.

3.1.2 Flood

Intense rainfall may cause flood, especially flash flood which usually happened in built up areas. Occurrence of flash flood could also be the result of rapid

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development and unstructured land occupation. Existing weather mitigation provision might not necessarily have the right capacity to handle heavy rainfall. Flood will definitely shut down the road network system, cause traffic congestion and damage properties including vehicles e.g. electronics, contaminate lubricants and threaten mechanical systems. In addition, flood is also responsible for other consequences related to road transportation safety in the long run. Flood water and prolonged heavy rainfall are endangering road surface through delamination and cracking (Abdul Karim 2008).

3.2 Wind

Wind, with regard to road safety, can be divided into two categories. First, the gust of wind as the result of the movement of ambient air; and the second one is the blow of air generated by moving vehicles. Both types of wind can affect the stability and control of vehicles while in motion.

The natural wind blows in many directions; and when matched with the direction of traffic (or vehicles on the road), it can be described in different terms – headwind, crosswind and tailwind. The names provide some hints on how they each impact the vehicles. Basically, headwind and tailwind will not be a major safety issue as they only affect the performance of longitudinal vehicle speed, either by pushing back or pushing forward. Crosswind on the other hand, which blows from the sides, has a greater impact on vehicles especially those with high centre of gravity (COG) and large flat surface. These vehicles are highly prone to the effects of crosswind in terms of stability and control. The crosswind, or side-wind, can cause vehicles such as buses, trucks transporting containers (semi-trailers and trailers), bonded pickups and vans to roll over (SWOV 2007). Besides the aerodynamic and stability issues, wind also blows obstacles (debris, sand etc.) onto the road, and the presence of precipitation with significant wind speed will make the situation more disorienting for drivers.

Vehicles, usually of the high-profile classes, also generate wind while in movement. The speed of the wind (basically side-wise) will be determined by the vehicle speed; the faster the speed, the greater the force of the generated wind (Land Transport NZ 2009). This wind is sufficient to blow other vehicles especially motorcycles and small vehicles, and therefore cause motorcyclists or drivers to lose control. High-profile vehicles are not only at risks to be affected

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by the natural wind, but can also be the “culprits” by doubling the jeopardy to their smaller counterparts on the road if both types of wind happened simultaneously.

3.3 Temperature

Extreme temperature or prolonged exposure to extreme ambient temperature has detrimental effects on drivers’ performance, road infrastructure, and vehicle components. The ambient temperature can be relatively high during the summer or low in winter. The effects of these temperature extremes might be different, but several studies have proven that both will decrease driving performance (e.g. Daanen et al. 2003).

Driving performance can possibly deteriorate due to psychological and physiological effects of ambient temperature. These detrimental effects, in the forms of fatigue and aggressive behaviours, can lead to more road accidents. However, most vehicles today are equipped with air-conditioning system so that the desired in-vehicle temperature can be attained. Still, the contribution of this system is unknown since lack of knowledge on the population of vehicle using it (availability and performance) (af Wåhlberg 2008), and the situation whereby drivers may “take” the temperature effects before they are being on the road (SWOV 2007).

3.4 Sunlight

Ranney et al. (1999) conducted a driving simulator study to study the effect of prolonged exposure to glare on experienced truck drivers. This study that was designed to examine the effects of vehicle headlights during night-time, however, failed to prove that glare significantly impacted the truck drivers.

Besides automotive lighting, the diurnal light is the other source of glare that could also impair drivers’ view. Sunlight, especially during sunrise and sunset, reduces drivers’ vision due to the light reflections. Light can be reflected off other vehicles’ window, buildings’ glass or shiny facades and other roadside structures; and the effect is even more serious during wet condition where more light is reflected by water. In certain situation (light angle), dirt or dust can be clearly seen on the windshield thus hindering the drivers’ view (SWOV 2007).

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3.5 Fog

Fog is another weather hazard in road transportation. Its presence greatly reduces visibility which can lead to multiple vehicle collisions and high casualty rates. The reduction in visibility is due to the fact that fog droplets, since they are so small and light, remain in the air and scatter the light (SWOV 2007); and this happens when the humidity is 100%. In general, fog can be classified into different categories ranging from dense fog to excellent visibility based on visibility distance. Different classification on fog visibility varies between studies e.g. Al-Ghamdi (2007) classified visibility distance less than 50 metres. as dense fog, 50 to 200 metres as light fog and over 200 metres as good visibility.

Besides facing restricted visibility issue, drivers also face the problems of choosing appropriate driving speed in low contrast environment i.e. foggy conditions (Anstis 2003; Pretto and Chatziastros 2006). Pretto and Chatziastros (2006) reported that drivers tend to reduce their speeds as the scene became foggier and vice versa. The argument is that, drivers perceive higher speed because their central region of visual field is being obstructed during foggy conditions, and as a behavioural compensation, driving speed is reduced (Pretto et al. 2008).

Notable examples of fog related accidents in the United States are the multiple vehicle collisions that occurred on I-77 (over Fancy Gap Mountain) and I-64 (over Afton Mountain) which respectively involved 65 and 21 vehicles (Lynn et al. 2002). In Canada, from the year 1988 to 1997, the number of fatal collisions in “fog, smog or mist” ranged from a low of 35 in 1997 to 80 cases in 1992 (Transport Canada 2001). Even though the number of accidents due to fog is normally low as compared to other weather related accidents, the severity of injuries and the number of involved vehicles are far greater.

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4.0 Malaysian Weather Profile and Potential Weather Hazards

This section describes the Malaysian weather profile and the potential hazards that local road users will encounter on the road. The discussion is again based on weather elements that hopefully portray linkages and better understanding from the previous section. Furthermore, it is important to point out the definition of “climate” and “weather” so that they can be referred to and understood correctly. In general terms, “climate” refers to the average atmospheric condition in a lengthy period of time, and “weather” is the phenomena in local atmosphere at a given time. The state of the atmosphere can be in the form of precipitation, wind, fog, sunlight and ambient temperature. Consequently, “climatological records” are observations taken at a preset time at the end of the day to determine long-term weather condition at an area, whereas “weather records” are observations of instantaneous weather variables taken at certain times of the day (IWW 1999).

4.1 An Overview of Malaysian Geography

Malaysia is situated in the Southeast Asia region, and consists of 13 states and three federal territories. These states and territories are separated into two regions – 11 states and two federal territories in the Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia), and two states and one federal territory in the Malaysian Borneo (East Malaysia). Its size is comparable to the United States’ New Mexico or the country of Vietnam (329 750 sq km). Malaysia is the home for its approximately 27 million citizens, in which the majority of its population concentrates in West Malaysia. Most of major cities and infrastructure including road networks are situated in West Malaysia, especially on the West Coast.

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Figure 4-1 Malaysia map (Source: Google maps)

The topography of Malaysia is fairly identical for both East and West Malaysia regions. All of the states and one of the territories are at least partially bordered by the sea except for the two federal territories – Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur. From the sea level, the landscape rises towards mountainous terrain with densely forested areas. The Titiwangsa Mountain Range in the western region, or often referred to as “the backbone of the Peninsular”, is the landmark of the terrain elevation as it also acts as the natural divider between the Peninsular’s West and East Coast. In East Malaysia, several mountain ranges meander across the Borneo Island with the highest point, Mount Kinabalu, in the state of Sabah (4 095 m above sea level).

On the whole, the climate of Malaysia is equatorial with slight disparity in rainfall, temperature and wind depending on local topography. According to the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD), there are three general attributes of Malaysian climate – uniform temperature, high humidity and copious rainfall (MMD 2008). Table A2-1 in Appendix 2 provides interesting summary of the most extreme weather phenomenon as recorded by MMD.

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4.2 Malaysian Weather Profile and Potential Weather Hazards to Local Road Users

4.2.1 Rain

The local topographic features as well as wind flow patterns determine the pattern and intensity of rainfall in Malaysia. The direction of prominent wind will influence the variation of rainfall distribution between the coastal area and the inland area that are closer to mountain ranges (MMD 2008). Four periodic wind flow patterns take place each year, namely the Southwest monsoon (SW), Northeast monsoon (NE) and two inter-monsoon seasons.

The SW monsoon commences in the period between the second half of May till early June and continues up till September. The wind is usually light which is below 15 knots and flow south-westerly. The NE monsoon occurs from November through March. The easterly or north-easterly wind blows between 10 to 20 knots and it may reach up to 30 knots due to cold surge travelling from Siberia (MMD 2008). The inter-monsoon season takes place in between these two prevailing monsoon wind. Normally, the winds during these periods are relatively light and variable. These monsoon phenomena are the predominant factors for the amounts of rainfall round the year. Principally, SW and NE monsoon winds are responsible for heavy and prolonged rainfall in Malaysia. And by virtue of greater wind speed as mentioned above, the NE monsoon brings more rain compared to its counterpart. This is because the SW monsoon strength is partially reduced by the Sumatran mountain range. The mean annual rainfall in Malaysia is considered significantly high at 2 500 mm, and the variation by places is in the range of 1 500 mm to over 4 000 mm annually (Desa and Rakhecha 2007). In addition, Malaysia as a tropical country also experiences a lot of convective rain, in which the rain with rapid-changing intensity falls over an area in a very short period of time.

MMD also has provided some of its climatological stations’ database that consisted of cumulated daily rainfall measurement and wind speed. However, the dataset are limited to climatological stations in the Peninsular Malaysia. From this dataset, the local weather condition can be further scrutinized to portray the weather phenomenon from other perspective i.e. road transportation safety. The details of the 27 stations are available in Table A3-1 (Appendix 3). These stations are located throughout the 11 states in

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the Peninsular, in urban and rural areas, representing both the West and East coasts. The information on the elevation of the areas relative to mean sea level (MSL), latitude and longitude provides more understanding on the location of those climatological stations.

Table A3-2 summarises the number of rain days at every location from 1997 to 2007. Overall, it reveals that almost half of the days in a year recorded occurrence of rain for all locations in the 11-year period (µ = 178 days, 365 days a year). The lowest and highest average number of rain days in that period are 149 days and 230 days, respectively recorded at Kuala Pilah and Cameron Highland. In addition, Cameron Highland is the only place that constantly recorded more than 200 rain days each year in that period, merely by virtue of its location at around 1 500 metre above the MSL.

The daily rainfall data can also provide the information on the rainfall frequency and also in terms of dry spell situation. Table A3-3 and A3-4 in Appendix 3 respectively summarise the frequency of gap between no-rain and rain days i.e. the length of dry spell in number of days. The rate of dry spell occurrence in Table A3-4 is divided into groups of seven consecutive days, while Table A3-3 further distributes the group of 1 to 7 cumulative no-rain days. From the information, it can be notified that all of these locations recorded a high number of short gaps between no-rain and rain day i.e. very short period of the absence of rain (less than 7 days). The absence of rain for at least one day before another rain day occurs in the epoch of 11 years recorded an average of 329 times (ó = 52), meanwhile the group of ‘1 to 7’ days recorded an average of 683 times (ó = 71). The information in Table A3-4 also reveals that longer dry spell occurred quite frequently in the period of ‘8 to 14’ and ‘15 to 21’ days. The states in the northern part of the Peninsula also recorded several occasions whereby the absence of rain happened in more than a month and also more than two months. The most extreme condition had happened in Alor Setar (Kedah) and Chuping (Perlis), with both places had once recorded 66 days in a row without rain.

What can be learned from the above fact? This approach of analysing the rainfall data can give more insight on the level of exposure to rain despite the information on the measured amount of rainfall, which has already proved that Malaysia is receiving a lot of rainfall each year. The following notes summarise the rain issues as per road safety is concerned.

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i. Small variation in the number of rain days can be associated with frequent exposure of rain to road users in Malaysia each year. In other words, local road users are highly likely to encounter driving in the rain or on wet pavement.

ii. Convective rain is to an extent, very dangerous to the drivers since it will create serious visibility problem as well as “frightening” effect when it first strikes the windshield.

iii. The information on the dry spell perspective shows that shorter period of spell outnumbered the longer spell. This can be an indicator on the frequency of exposure to rain that has positive and negative influences. If the argument on drivers’ adjustment toward rainfall is considered, local road users are supposed to be more ‘experienced’ in the said condition. Yet, they are also prone to other risky conditions such as low visibility and reduced friction. Further investigation need to be conducted to identify the effect of rain frequency or in terms of dry spell effect.

iv. There are also some interesting observations regarding the urbanized areas. These places have high volumes of road traffic as well as traffic congestion. Therefore, the occurrence of rain will add more difficulties and driving risks to the road users. In particular, Petaling Jaya and Subang, which are highly populated and developed areas in Klang Valley, have recorded high number of annual rain days with the average for the 11-year period tied at 205 days. (Table A3-2).

4.2.2 Wind

As mentioned earlier, the monsoon wind is the prevailing wind trend in Malaysia that blows in the range between 10 to 30 knots (18 to 55 km/h). However, weak low level wind occurs approximately 40% of the time by virtue of the stable conditions of the air at low levels in the equatorial region of Southeast Asia (Mastura 2008). Furthermore, Table A3-5 in Appendix 3 provides the average wind speed based on the same locations for rainfall (except for certain stations due to incomplete data). Most of these locations that are relatively near to the sea recorded higher average annual wind speed compared to inland locations. However, in overall, this data also indicates that the wind in Malaysia is most of the time blowing relatively weak.

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As a maritime country, Malaysia also experiences land and onshore breeze effects. Mainly, these are due to temperature differences between the land and sea. During the day, the land gets warmer faster than the sea, and thus creates low pressure area inland. The cooler and relatively higher pressure air will move towards the land. At night, the reverse process takes place since the land cools down quicker than the sea. The onshore breeze, or sea breeze, can reach up to 10 to 15 knots but the land breeze normally blows at a weaker strength (MMD 2008).

Although wind does not appear as an obvious road safety hazard in Malaysia, some conditions can be considered dangerous as explained below.

i. Since wind is also the cause of copious rain in the country, road users will highly likely to experience rain and high wind at the same time (e.g. storm).

ii. The topography of Malaysian land is largely mountainous and therefore some of the road networks are inevitably being built across the hilly areas. The gust of air can be further amplified by the mountainous terrain (barrier jet or katabatic wind), and therefore will increase the possibility of strong crosswind to happen. Consequently, this will affect vehicle stability on the road.

4.2.3 Temperature

The temperature of the country is fairly consistent round the year with the annual temperature variation below 3°C. The temperature during the day is usually hot ranging from 27°C to 32°C in most places, and the night temperature is typically between 21°C to 24°C. The daily variation is in the range of 5°C and up to 12°C (MMD 2008). Nevertheless, some places with different topographical attributes especially at the mountainous areas experience different temperature gamut. For example, places such as Cameron Highlands and Fraser’s Hill in Pahang have relatively colder ambient temperature whereas the Northern part of the Malaysian Peninsular is hotter. The lowest temperature ever recorded was 7.8°C in Cameron Highlands in 1978 (Appendix 2), and the highest ever temperature was recorded at Chuping at 40.1°C in the year 1998 (Appendix 2).

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Local road users are also being exposed to the higher extreme temperature during hot and sunny days. Wåhlberg (2008) has mentioned that the clear cut of desirable temperature is uncertain, however, Daanen et al. (2003) has categorised the ambient temperature into cold, thermoneutral and warm at 5°C, 20°C and 35°C, respectively. Thus, the exposure to heat in Malaysia is more towards warm category especially during the day. If the fact that most road travels happened during daytime, the local road users especially the motorcyclists are therefore highly exposed to the effects of high temperature all year round.

4.2.4 Sunlight

Malaysia receives abundant sunlight as it is situated relatively close to the equator. On average, Malaysia receives around six hours of sunlight per day, and there are certainly some seasonal and spatial variations. The areas in the northern part of the Malaysian Peninsular (West Malaysia), as recorded in Alor Setar and Kota Bharu, are exposed to longer period of sunlight per day (MMD 2008).

Ironically, road safety hazards mostly appear during fine days, which is regarded and recorded as “normal” or “non-adverse weather”. It is also to be noted that a bright day can also mean a hot day, especially at noon in certain countries as Malaysia. As mentioned earlier, high temperature may cause fatigue and deteriorate driving performance. Therefore, driving a vehicle during “normal” day can also be dangerous since the intense sunlight and extreme temperature effects may materialize concurrently.

4.2.5 Fog

Generally, fog or a cloud of water droplets is formed when the temperature of the ground decreases at night and the air cools above the dew point. This phenomenon is known as radiation fog and it can be usually seen in valleys and mountains. The other type of fog is known as advection fog, in which it is formed when warm and moist air passes over a cold surface and the moisture in the air condenses. This advection fog can be usually seen at sea or near the coastline. These fogs may have the potential to affect the drivers as some of the local road networks are built on mountainous terrain or close to the sea.

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However, in reality, foggy condition very rarely becomes an outstanding threat to the majority of local road users, with the exception to the abovementioned foggy-prone locations, and the diffusion of pollutants that caused haze. Foggy situation most of the time happens during wee hours and therefore the visibility problem due to fog in Malaysia only affects a small number of nocturnal drivers. In cases involving air pollutants, Malaysia and its neighbouring countries had experienced several serious haze episodes such as in 1997. The weak blowing wind allowed the pollutants from burning biomass to stay in the atmosphere for several weeks (Mastura 2008). This situation has not only caused health-related problems but also reduced drivers’ vision.

4.3 A Special Look into Weather Effects to Motorcyclist

One of the uniqueness in road transportation sector for the Southeast Asia region is the high number of motorcycle population. In Malaysia, the population of motorcycle is approximately 50% of the total registered vehicles (Hussain et al. 2004; Nusayba et al. 2008). The motorcycle’s popularity among Malaysian is perhaps due to its ease-of-use, including lane-splitting ability in heavy traffic and attractive economical factors. In addition, the local weather condition also allows motorcycle to be used around the year.

Motorcyclists, however, are exposed to many disadvantages such as high chance of getting severely injured if involved in road accident, as well as direct exposure to the prevailing weather condition. Riding ‘uncovered’ on the road makes the motorcyclists more affected by the weather elements as explained above – hot ambient temperature, rain droplet and wet pavement, wind ambient and larger vehicles, and glare from the reflected sunlight. Furthermore, the condition of low visibility in rain will make them less visible to the drivers. This will certainly add more risks to the motorcyclists besides the fact that they are already the most vulnerable road users in the motorized vehicle segment due to many other safety factors.

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5.0 Related Road Accidents Statistics in Malaysia – A Compilation and Discussion

5.1 The Distinction between Climatological and Weather Records

The distinction between climatological record and weather record, as explained earlier, is in fact very meaningful as far as road safety is concerned. For example, road accidents are recorded in details including the information on weather conditions; and this information can be considered as weather record. Even though the records are widely open for misjudgements or errors by the responsible personnel (usually police officer) (Edwards 1998), the information on weather condition for each road accident is very important for further analysis.

The information on climatological records (e.g. daily rainfall) is not sufficient to determine the correlation between road accident and weather condition to the required degree of accuracy, simply due to temporal and spatial uniqueness of weather phenomenon. Nevertheless, climatological record has other relevant function in the interest of related research. It can be used to determine the exposure of different weather phenomenon to road users as shown in the previous chapter. Also, the study of climate change using climatological record is also important in predicting the implications of the phenomena towards changeable weather impacts and also preparing the appropriate countermeasures.

5.2 Malaysian Road Accident Data

In Malaysia, road transport management and enforcement system is by and large the responsibility of these two government agencies – Royal Malaysian Police (Polis Diraja Malaysia–PDRM) and Road Transport Department (Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan–JPJ). Even though these agencies share the same act, the Road Transport Act 1987, they are administratively concentrated on different work scopes. JPJ’s focus is more on vehicles and drivers licensing as well as enforcing related laws on domestic vehicle regulations, whereas PDRM focuses on road traffic enforcement as well as managing road accidents, with a dedicated team called the Traffic Police Contingent.

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All reported traffic accidents will be investigated by the Traffic Police according to the level of severity. Fatal accident, for example, will be managed and comprehensively investigated by the assigned Traffic Investigation Officer (IO) with the help of other officers. Their duties, among others, are to ensure the overall traffic safety, manage the accident scene and the victims, collect evidence and interview those who witnessed or were involved in the accident. All of the information is recorded in a form, coded as POL 27.

5.3 Weather-Related Accident Data

One of the items in POL 27, particularly item C (Surrounding environment), is asking for prevailing weather condition (No. 34) of a particular road accident. There are four available options to describe the weather condition – fine (baik), strong or crosswind (angin kuat atau lintang), fog (berkabus) and rain (hujan). Unfortunately, there are several shortcomings for the recorded weather data as described in the following.

i. Compilation and analysis of the recorded weather data is not available in the PDRM’s annual report. This is one of the indicators that the subject matter is somehow underreported and perhaps it happens due to (ii).

ii. From the database, it is found that an average of 6% (µ = 5.78%) of the investigated accident cases are having the weather section being filled each year for the periods of 1997 to 2007 (Table 5-1). Thus, this data limitation is surely affecting the overall analysis and the reliability of the findings.

Table 5-1 Overview of weather information in PDRM’s record system

Year Total investigated accident

Total investigated accident with recorded

weather condition

Percentage investigated accident with recorded weather condition (%)

1997 215 632 16 881 7.83

1998 211 037 8 891 4.21

1999 223 166 12 281 5.50

2000 250 417 13 811 5.52

2001 265 175 11 928 4.50

2002 279 237 11 678 4.18

(continue)

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Year Total investigated accident

Total investigated accident with recorded

weather condition

Percentage investigated accident with recorded weather condition (%)

2003 298 651 10 271 3.44

2004 326 815 12 904 3.95

2005 328 268 25 002 7.62

2006 341 252 27 826 8.15

2007 315 973 27 593 8.73

Despite all of these abovementioned shortcomings, there is still a possibility of descriptive analysis to be carried out using the remaining data. After cleaning the data, the total number of accidents that are having weather records is further reduced to 97 856. It is also to be noted that this figure is merely 3% of approximately 3 million reported and investigated accidents in the 11-year period. Table 5-2 provides the summary of the number of accidents according to recorded weather condition.

Table 5-2 Number of road accidents according to weather condition

Weather Total Percentage

Fine 88 875 90.82

Windy 306 0.31

Foggy 1 705 1.74

Rain 6 970 7.12

TOTAL 97 856 100.00

It can be seen that the biggest number of the road accidents happened in fine weather and followed by rain, foggy and windy condition. Even though this fact is not enough to provide a solid conclusion, the above pattern is similar in terms of weather categorisation when compared to the situation in other countries. For example, the United States highways recorded 78% of injury and fatal accidents in non-adverse weather condition (1995–2001), while the remaining 22% happened in adverse weather condition with precipitation-related accidents being the most prominent factor (Goodwind 2002). In summary, even though this finding is not representative of the country’s road accident trend with regard to weather condition, it can provide some insight on the weather-related road accidents in Malaysia.

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5.4 Weather-Related Accident in Malaysian Major Highway

The significant increase in Malaysian road network in the recent years is partly due to the construction of tolled roads by several highway concessionaires. These private endeavours that are usually based on the “Build-Operate-Transfer” (BOT) contract, to a certain extent have helped the government in providing high quality road infrastructure and reducing traffic congestion in major cities. The majority of these highways are located in the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur; the longest network is the well-known North-South Expressway, or formally recognised as PLUS (Projek Lebuhraya Utara Selatan). It runs for 966 kilometres on the West Coast of Malaysian Peninsular, connecting major cities in that region via a closed-system highway network. For information, PLUS main networks are coded as E 0001 for northbound and E 0002 for southbound, from Kuala Lumpur.

PLUS started its operation in 1994 and since then has handled relatively high traffic volume each year. For instance, PLUS has never failed to record more than 300 millions actual traffic volume each year in the period of 2003 to 2007 (Table A4-1 in Appendix 4). This is possibly due to the high speed traffic and travelling convenience not offered by the federal road network, particularly the Federal Route No. 1 (F 0001). High volume of traffic can also be observed during festive seasons when city dwellers drive to many destinations covered by PLUS network to visit their parents and relatives – a unique social culture cordially referred to as “balik kampung” (or going back to the hometown).

The above fact suggests that this major highway faces risky traffic condition, including the effects of weather elements. For the purpose of that concern, PLUS has provided its accident statistics according to weather condition and accident severity (Table A4-1 in Appendix 4). This dataset is believed to be highly reliable compared to the previous dataset by virtue that PLUS highway operates on a closed-loop system. This system has enabled PLUS to comprehensively monitor any incidents that happen in its network, even if it is just a “damage-only” accident or vehicles that run out of fuel. And even though the Traffic Police is responsible for any reported road accidents on the highway, PLUS management also operates its own accident management and data collection.

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In the five-year period, around 37 000 accidents that occurred at PLUS have classified weather condition. The weather classification is also the same as in the POL 27, except for foggy and haze that are grouped together. From this classification, it is found that approximately 73% of the total accidents in the span of five years happened during non-adverse weather (fine) (Table 5-3). This is then followed by rain with 26%, and windy and foggy with a total of less than 1%. This analysis could somehow support the analysis of the problematic national data to determine the following.

i. The overall picture of the weather-related road accidents as depicted in Table 5-3. It can be notified that the weather-related accident pattern is fairly the same for both datasets.

ii. Accidents in fine weather dominate other classifications. Rain stands out as the prominent factor among other adverse-weather classification, while foggy and windy condition being less significant factors. It is to be noted that the higher rate for rain-related accidents at PLUS cannot be portrayed as greater risk of rain at that expressway compared to national dataset.

Table 5-3 Summary of accidents at PLUS according to weather classification (2003–2007)

Weather Total Percentage

Fine 26 919 72.92

Rain 9 809 26.57

Windy 87 0.24

Foggy/Haze 102 0.28

TOTAL 36 917 100.00

6.0 Preventive Measures Regarding Weather Hazards

Efforts in road safety research and preventions have these two common goals – to reduce the number of accidents and to minimize the injury outcome from an accident. These two goals are made possible to achieve by looking at the problems and interventions in the main components of road transportation

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system. Andrey et al. (2001) in her report categorised the interventions into the three E’s – engineering, enforcement and education. On the other hand, some others have looked at the measures from different perspective but also in a group of three – human (behavioural), vehicle and the road (infrastructural) (As stated in SWOV (2007) and MIROS (2008), for example). It appears that the former grouping is based on the common source of road safety measures while the latter is based on the common areas that received the measures.

6.1 Engineering Measures

The engineering side will provide the optimum technology to vehicles and road infrastructures, while enforcement and education will cater mainly for the human side. It is also to be noted that some inventions by engineering endeavours are meant to give impact directly to drivers and other road users. Nevertheless, in the case of adverse weather as road safety hazards, the engineering measures can be philosophically regarded in three different temporal levels as listed below.

i. First, to eliminate the presence of weather elements from affecting a “moving vehicle”.

ii. Second, to “cure” the affected portion of the system in a “moving vehicle”.

iii. Third, is for long-term vehicles’ and road structures’ robustness towards enduring weather effects.

For example, devices such as windscreen wiper and demister are dedicated to improve visibility by removing water (also dirt) and mist, respectively. The wiper when activated will sweep the water back and forth across the screen, whereas the demister which is painted on the rear windscreen will heat the screen in order to remove the mist away. Additionally, roads are built with a peak at the road’s horizontal centre, often called as road crown, to provide proper drainage ability. These are the instances whereby the inventions are provided to prevent weather elements from harming a “moving vehicle”.

The next level of weather hazards comes silently further, usually beyond the scope of the drivers’ awareness, unless they already have the knowledge about these hazards and are prepared for them. Drivers, in general, cannot precisely

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predict how bad the road surface in wet condition, and they have a very high tendency to underestimate the road slipperiness while driving (Example given in the case of wintertime by Kilpeläinen and Summala (2006). Thus, the enhancements in vehicle braking system technology and other active safety features provide the answer to “cure” driver’s deficiencies in terms of judgment and driving skills.

For instance, the anti-lock braking system (ABS) is one of the additions in braking technology whereby it prevents wheel lock-up so that vehicle stability and steering control are maintained (Burston et al. 2004). Generally, wheel lock-up happened due to the reduction in lateral friction that supposed to enable vehicle steering. The Electric Control Unit (ECU) is actually the “brain” for this technology as it will detect lock-up in terms of wheel deceleration and subsequently balances the brake force between the onset of wheel lock-up and best possible brake force. The effect of ABS is investigated in many studies, as compiled by Burston (2004), and identified to have significant contributions in relatively reducing accidents rate as well as accidents severity in wet conditions. Other braking technologies, extensively developed through the powerful ability of ECU and creation of ABS, are also dedicated in addressing “tyre-friction” concerns. To name a few, they are Electronic Stability Control (ESC, or other names coined by the developer), Brake Assist (BA) and Electronic Brakeforce Distributions (EBD).

The other part of the engineering side is the road infrastructures that help in improving mitigation of weather hazards. Properly designed and constructed roads in terms of geometric features, pavement selection and practical weather mitigation capability will improve traffic flow and driving performance during adverse weather condition. Skidding problems on wet pavement is a well-known issue especially if vehicles are travelling at high speed. The water film that remains on the road surface also causes hydroplaning and splash-and-spray (Noyce et al. 2005). Furthermore, Schaefer et al. (2006) has listed the benefits of using pervious pavement (pervious concrete) that includes “improving skid resistance by removing water during rainy days”. Another example of high performance pavement is Stone Mastic Asphalts (SMA) with Polymer Modified Bitumen (PmBs) that can reduce the depth of wheel tracks or rutted pavement (Leong et al. 2004). Thus, pavement with high permeability should be highly considered in building roads especially for highways that allow high-speed traffic.

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Vehicles and roads are also exposed to long-term effects of weather conditions, especially to the presence of water. Water is one of the elements that can cause corrosion of metal. Corrosion will potentially endanger the whole vehicle structure since many parts of a vehicle are made from metal. Generally, there are two types of corrosion that vehicles might suffer from – crevice and general corrosion. Crevice corrosion happens once constricted gap between sheets of metal is filled by water. This gap is formed during the welding or coupling process. General corrosion will occur once the protective surface coating has worn out as a result of long-term vehicle use and exposure to the ambient weather elements (Hamzah and Kanniah 2005). Water can also cause delamination and cracking of the road pavement. Delamination happened due to weakening of joints between “wearing course” and “binder course”, while cracking is the result exposure to high moisture condition (Abdul Karim 2008).

6.2 Enforcement Measures

The risk of adverse weather hazard can also be reduced through enforcement of speed limits and other traffic rules (Andrey et al. 2001). Nonetheless, enforcement activities by the police may be interrupted during bad weather conditions. Road users therefore may have a common perception that less or almost no enforcement activities being carried out by the police during adverse weather period. This will create significant safety issues since drivers react in variable ways during prevailing adverse weather condition including speed limit violation. Several papers stated that some drivers adapt to adverse weather condition by driving slower but this is not true for some others (e.g. Al-Ghamdi (2007).

There are several methods to enhance road traffic rules compliance, other than enforcement by police officers, which are through the provision of the automated enforcement system (AES) and traffic controlled variable speed limit (VSL). AES is implemented by taking still photos whenever traffic violations such as speeding and red light running are detected. VSL can also facilitate the effort to increase speed limit compliance by displaying the reduced speed limit during poor condition. For example, the introduction of VSL by Swedish Road Administration (SRA) in their study period during 2004–2007, showed that the speed limit observance and compliance by the road users has increased through the introduction of VSL (Lind 2007).

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6.3 Educational Measures

Educational-based means can be realized through dissemination of related information as well as adequate training to the drivers. Information can be in the form of knowledge about weather effects that any driver must know and understand, and in the form of real time weather updates as well. The knowledge and understanding of weather hazards is critical for drivers’ preparedness and precautions. Near real-time weather information, from sources such as radio broadcasts and websites, is also important for drivers in order for them to be more alert to traffic hazard or to reconsider their trip planning. Road traffic advisory can directly educate road users and help them to make better decisions. However, a study in Finland found that not everyone is interested in getting the weather info, and also those who acquired information will not necessarily adjust their on-road driving behaviour (Kilpeläinen and Summala 2006).

The drivers can also be provided with advanced driving skills for adverse weather conditions. It can be done during driving courses, either in the novice driver training or in advanced driving programme. For example, drivers should learn how to apply different handling and braking procedures on wet pavement. This is because drivers sometimes need to avoid potholes, standing water, debris or other obstructions on the road particularly during or right after a heavy downpour. In short, the combination of these two educational approaches can help drivers to make good decisions and maintain optimal vehicle control when encountering any critical situation.

6.4 Malaysia’s Efforts at a Glance

As of now, Malaysia does not have a nationwide dedicated programme to comprehensively cater for weather problems in the context of road transportation. However, some related efforts can be observed in many areas in the country. This includes road engineering, intelligent transport, enforcement, vehicle profile and media contribution.

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6.4.1 Road Engineering

Construction and administration of roads and expressways in Malaysia are under the custody of the Ministry of Works through the Public Works Department (JKR) and Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM). It can be assured that the awareness of weather hazard already exists in these agencies’ consideration; and in fact they are extending their construction preparation by looking at the associated environmental issues such as surface runoff, drainage provision, flood-prone areas and other topographical concerns.

Abdul Karim (2008) in his report has comprehensively summarised the local road infrastructure development whereby JKR is considering many factors in their road development planning and construction. Among others, JKR is looking at the environmental effects on the overall road systems in Malaysia. Rapid economic growth in the last two decades has turned many suburban areas into busy cities, which created unpredictable urbanisation effects. Coupled with the global climate change, perhaps, these in turn, lead to increasing flash flood occurrences. This factor will not only reduce the roads’ service life, but also put the overall road traffic system in jeopardy especially in the adverse weather condition. Therefore, JKR has recently replaced the pavement work manual in 2007 to cater to road structure durability issues. Moreover, JKR is also taking into their consideration of other environmental issues such as bridges’ structural integrity and slope management.

Malaysia has participated in a road assessment programme known as the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) project. The idea of this RAP programme is to increase the level of safety, by precisely assessing the road network features that will finally be converted into 5-star rating (Hussain et al. 2007). The number of stars, with five being the maximum score, can associate a specified location with the seriousness of injury outcome from an accident due to road environment. The assessments, among others, include the profile of roadside condition, curvature and provision of motorcycle lane. This information will play a role in determining the priority of road development and safety countermeasures. The iRAP will, albeit indirectly, also cater to weather-related accident intervention since dangerous road condition will be even worse in the presence of weather elements e.g. precipitation. For example, skidding that usually happened due to wet road may lead vehicles to run off-road and collide with hazardous roadside objects.

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The road signs are also available as advisory measures to remind road users regarding hazards they might encounter ahead of their journey. Malaysian road signs are fairly similar to those in other countries except for certain distinctions and certainly the language used. Some of these road signs are directly meant for adverse weather advisory but some can be indirectly associated with the subject matter. The signs for crosswind, slippery road and landslide-prone area (Figure 6-1) are the examples of direct weather-related warning, whereas the signs for soft road shoulder, sharp corner, reduce speed and accident-prone area can be considered as indirect. It also can be observed that some of the road signs in certain areas are retrofitted with light-flashing devices or “accompanied” by weather phenomenon indicator such as wind sock (Figure 6-2).

Many motorcyclists are observed to take the risk to continue riding in rain, although they eventually have to pull over from the traffic if the rain got heavier. Thus, the concern has led the government to provide motorcycle shelters and lay-bys at some places on the federal route networks as well as on the highways (Figure 6-3 and Figure 6-4). This asylum for “rain-fugees” could rarely be found in other countries in the world. These shelters or lay-bys could accommodate about 20 to 50 riders, but not necessarily their bikes. Even though this effort is in fact can encourage the motorcyclists to practice preventive effort, there are conditions whereby the flock of motorcyclists have put themselves in another dangerous situations. In some instances, there were too many motorcyclists stopping at a shelter, and due to the limited space, some of the motorcycles were parked dangerously close to the traffic lanes. Some of the motorcyclists were also observed to wander around the shelter with little regards for the moving traffic.

Figure 6-1 An example of landslide prone area (rockslide) warning

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Figure 6-2 Crosswind warning sign (left) and wind sock planted nearby (right) alongside the North-South Expressway (PLUS) in Johor

Figure 6-3 Motorcycle shelter type 1: Hut-style lay-by

Figure 6-4 Motorcycle shelter type 2: Improvised space underneath high-level overpass

6.4.2 Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)

With today’s cutting-edge information technologies, many countries have initiated the effort towards a system known as Intelligent Transport Systems

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(ITS). ITS could benefit the transportation sector in lessening the cost, reducing environmental pollution as well as improving road safety. Some ITS applications in Malaysia have been up and running since the mid nineties such as electronic toll collection, computer controlled traffic signals and variable message signs (VMS) (Amir and Mohd Harizam 2007). The commanding capabilities of ITS technologies, even though the ideal provision has yet to be realised, will also facilitate the dissemination of information through many means. VMS is one of the ITS efforts that helps to alert drivers with current situation as well as suggesting alternatives. Thus, VMS or other ITS applications can also facilitate the early stage intervention regarding adverse weather condition.

6.4.3 Enforcement

Besides ITS, Malaysia has also looked into the high-tech enforcement system which is the Automated Enforcement System (AES). This scheme will optimize road traffic enforcement activities that currently have suffered from manpower issues. While the groundwork for its realisation in Malaysia is still in progress, MIROS as the Ministry of Transport (MOT) research wing has conducted some studies dedicated to AES implementation such as determining the possible locations for AES installation (Sharifah Allyana et al. 2009). However, Malaysia has yet to adopt the Variable Speed Limit (VSL) method to improve road traffic rules compliance, particularly when the environment gets worse.

6.4.4 Vehicle Profile

Most vehicles in today’s local market are observed to be equipped with more safety features such as ABS and other safety technologies. It is now becoming more common to see these features not only in the luxury segment but also in lower priced cars. It is indeed a healthy trend in terms of accident prevention measures although the status quo in Malaysian vehicle regulations has not been pushing for the vehicle manufacturers to include these features as standard fitment in their products. On the other note, tinted window is becoming more popular among vehicle owners as it will protect them from heat and sunlight as well as adding more looks to the vehicles. Window tinting is available as vehicle standard fitment or promotional item by vehicle dealers

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or aftermarket product. Nevertheless, the current trend of vehicle owners installing over-spec tint film i.e. more than the allowable luminous resistance is now becoming a safety as well as security issues. The over-spec tint film can create visual and conspicuity problems especially in low-contrast condition (Burns et al. 1999). However, use of over-spec tint film to increase security has become the current debate among vehicle owners especially for MPV and SUV owners (see-through luggage compartment) as well as vehicles owned by high-profile persons (VIP) for security reasons.

6.4.5 Media Contributions

The broadcast media in Malaysia can be considered very advanced if compared to other developing countries, thanks to the provision of the internet and other cutting-edge media technologies such as satellite television. This will essentially facilitate the dissemination of information including traffic advisory and weather forecast. As of today, there is nothing that can be considered as dedicated weather-traffic advisory programme in Malaysia, but information of the subject matter such as weather forecast and update can be acquired from the television news, radio broadcast and the websites. It can also be observed that most radio stations have allocated timely traffic updates every day especially during rush hours to alert road users.

Yet, media endeavour certainly has its limitations i.e. unknown population of computer-literate road users and internet availability, as well as unfeasible traffic update to motorcyclist via radio broadcast while being on the road.

7.0 Conclusion and Future Research Direction

Adverse weather condition, is one of the factors that could lead to road accidents by lessening the performance of all aspects in a “moving vehicle”. All kinds of weather phenomenon that drivers have to deal with while on the road may be underestimated to be serious hazards in road transportation. In Malaysia, even without the extreme condition of snow-related threat, road users are also jeopardized by the effects of rainfall, wind, fog, as well as ambient temperature and sunlight.

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From the overview of local weather profile on all the above mentioned weather elements, rainfall can be regarded as the major issue based on primarily the amount of rainfall that Malaysia received each year and the rate of recurrence of rain in terms of days in a year. Rainfall does not only become a hazard to the moving traffic, but also carry long term durability issues to the vehicle and road structure as well as a “hidden” phenomenon called dry spell that affects road users adaptation to the temporal patterns of rainfall. The other phenomenon i.e. wind, hot temperature, sunlight and fog, despite being perceived as having lesser impacts, also have the tendency to impair driving performance.

At this level of exploration of the subject matter, recorded accidents statistics that is principally based on the Traffic Police records may not be the best reference to explain the effects of adverse weather due to poor profiling on weather condition in accident records. However, the interim evaluation shows that rain is the major hazard among other weather elements. On top of that, the demand for better weather profiling per accident record is now becoming an important issue to determine the risk with greater accuracy.

Intervention efforts as discussed in previous chapters can be further extended to be more effective and in turn provide safer roads in Malaysia. For instance, the advisory programme has not yet received the proper attention and coverage in Malaysia (e.g. advertisement and weather information). Also, motorcyclist safety is another related niche area that needs substantial consideration.

In summary, this report to a certain extent has explored the overall picture of weather-related road safety concern that ultimately had been narrowed down into the situations in Malaysia. The comprehensive review of the subject matter has revealed that weather creates a significant impact in road transportation but the preliminary analysis of the actual accident record could not strongly explain the status quo of weather hazard to local road users.

The following discussion describes the potential efforts in the future.

1. Fundamental Research Effort

First and foremost, an evidence-based research must be carried out to eventually bring to a solid conclusion that weather is a great safety hazard in

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Malaysia. More knowledge should be acquired in terms of local meteorological phenomenon, road condition, traffic volume and people’s mobility, vehicle profile and most importantly the great lack in weather-related accident record. Also, the impact of non-precipitation weather elements such as wind, sunlight and temperature should be explored further. Their impacts are to a certain extent very difficult to determine.

2. Concerted Nationwide Partnership

Partnership between related institutions in Malaysia could aid the said research whereby the input (knowledge and expertise) and direction (research and intervention) can be shared among the contributors. This can be realised in Malaysia since there are many institutions that have the interrelated expertise. The following are examples of institutions, identified based on their expertise fields.

i. Road Safety • MalaysianInstituteofRoadSafetyResearch(MIROS) • RoadSafetyDepartment(JKJR)

ii. Road Engineering • PublicWorksDepartment(JKR) • MalaysianHighwayAuthority(LLM)

iii. Meteorology, Climatology and Hydrology • MalaysianMeteorologicalDepartment(MMD) • NationalHydraulicResearchInstituteofMalaysia(NAHRIM) • HumidTropicsCentre(HTC) • DepartmentofIrrigationandDrainageMalaysia(JPS)

iv. Universities and Colleges • Road Safety Research Centre (RSRC) of Universiti PutraMalaysia

(UPM) • Astronomy and Atmospheric Science Research Unit (AARU) of

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)

v. Others • PusatTenagaMalaysia(PTM)–ClimateChangeandEnergy • RoyalMalaysianPolice(PDRM)–EnforcementandAccidentData • RoadTransportDepartment(JPJ)–Vehicle

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38


Appendix 1

Table A1-1 General road accident statistics and fatality index in Malaysia (Radin Umar 2007)

Year Vehicles registered

(mil.)

Road length

(KM)

Number of Fatality index

Accidents Death Per 10 000

vehicles

Per 100 000 population

Per billion

VKT

1996 7.6 60 734 189 109 6 304 8.20 29.8 40.4

1997 8.5 63 382 215 632 6 302 7.37 29.1 36.3

1998 9.1 63 382 211 037 5 740 6.28 25.3 30.9

1999 9.9 64 981 223 166 5 794 5.83 25.5 28.7

2000 10.5 64 981 250 417 6 035 5.70 26.0 28.0

2001 11.3 64 981 265 175 5 849 5.17 25.1 25.5

2002 12.1 64 981 279 237 5 887 4.88 25.3 24.0

2003 12.8 71 814 298 651 6 282 4.88 25.1 24.0

2004 13.8 71 814 326 815 6 228 4.51 24.3 22.2

2005 14.8 72 400 328 268 6 200 4.18 23.7 20.6

2006 15.7 72 400 341 252 6 287 3.98 23.6 19.6

Figure A1-1 Fatality rate per 10 000 vehicles for Malaysia (Radin Umar 2005)

39


Appendix 2

Table A2-1 General climate information (extreme cases) recorded by MMD (Source : http://www.kjc.gov.my)

Temperature

Extreme case Figure Description

Highest temperature 40.1 °C Recorded at Chuping, Perlis on 9 April 1998

Lowest temperature 7.8 °C Recorded at Cameron Highlands at altitude 1471.6 m above Mean Sea Level on 1 February 1978

Lowest temperature variation in a day

1.1 °C Recorded at Cameron Highlands, Pahang on 16 November 1998

Greatest temperature variation in a day

15.7 °C Recorded at Kuala Krai, Kelantan on 20 April 1998

Precipitation


Highest rainfall in an hour 159.4 mm Recorded at Sandakan, Sabah on 27 October 2006

Highest rainfall in a day 608 mm Recorded at Kota Bharu, Kelantan on 6 January 1967

Highest rainfall in a year 5 687 mm Recorded at Sandakan, Sabah in 2006

Lowest rainfall in a year 1 151 mm Recorded at Tawau, Sabah on 1997

Highest average annual rainfall 4 128 mm Recorded at Kuching, Sarawak

Lowest average annual rainfall 1 746 mm Recorded at Chuping, Perlis

Highest average number of rain per day

247 days Recorded at Kuching, Sarawak

Wind


Highest mean daily wind speed 3.1 m/s Recorded at Mersing, Johor

Highest maximum wind speed 41.7 m/s Recorded at Kuching, Sarawak on 15 September 1992

Thunderstorm


Highest mean annual no. of days with thunderstorm

212 days Recorded at Subang

Highest no. of days with thunderstorm in a year

269 days Recorded at Subang in 1969

Note: This analysis was based on the records of 36 principle meteorological stations. Observation of thunderstorm had been made in Subang by virtue of the presence of an airport.

40


Appendix 3

Table A3-1 Details on the topography of MMD climatological stations

State Location Urban/Rural

Peninsular Height MSL (m)

Latitude Longitude

Perlis Chuping Rural West Coast 21.7 6° 29’N 100° 16’E

Kedah Alor Setar Urban West Coast 3.9 6° 12’N 100° 24’E

Baling Rural West Coast 51.9 5° 41’N 100° 55’E

Kulim Urban West Coast 32 5° 23’N 100° 33’E

Penang Butterworth Urban West Coast 2.8 5° 28’N 100° 23’E

Bayan Lepas Urban West Coast 2.8 5° 18’N 100° 16’E

Perak Ipoh Urban West Coast 40.1 4° 34’N 101° 06’E

Sitiawan Rural West Coast 7.0 4° 13’N 100° 42’E

Parit Buntar Rural West Coast 3.1 5° 08’N 100° 30’E

Selangor Petaling Jaya Urban West Coast 60.8 3° 06’N 101° 39’N

Subang Urban West Coast 16.5 3° 07’N 101° 33’N

Negeri Sembilan

Kuala Pilah Rural West Coast 61.0 3° 34’N 101° 38’E

Malacca Bandar Melaka Urban West Coast 8.5 2° 16’N 102° 15’E

Johor Senai Urban East Cost 37.8 1° 38’N 103° 40’E

Tangkak Rural West Coast 30.5 2° 16’N 102° 32’E

Kluang Rural West Coast 88.1 2° 01’N 103° 19’E

Mersing Rural East Coast 43.6 2° 27’N 103° 50’E

Pahang Kuantan Urban East Coast 15.3 3° 47’N 103° 13’E

Muadzam Shah Rural East Coast 33.3 3° 03’N 103° 05’E

Temerloh Rural East Coast 39.1 3° 28’N 102° 23’E

Bentong Rural East Coast 96.7 3° 31’N 101° 55’E

Batu Embun Rural East Coast 59.5 3° 58’N 102° 21’E

Cameron Highland

Rural West Coast 1545.0 4° 28’N 101° 22’E

Terengganu K. Terengganu Urban East Coast 5.2 5° 23’N 103° 06’E

Kemaman Rural East Coast 50.0 4° 15’N 103° 19’E

Kelantan Kota Bharu Urban East Coast 4.6 6° 10’N 102° 17’E

Kuala Krai Rural East Coast 68.3 5° 32’N 102° 12’E

41


Table A3-2 Number of rain days per year from 1997 to 2007

Average

State Location 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Day %

Perlis Chuping 147 163 201 197 185 156 164 155 162 156 172 169 46.28

Kedah Alor Setar 162 168 195 185 180 162 162 151 171 169 181 171 46.97

Baling 164 158 140 105 115 115 130 145 161 189 207 148 40.57

Kulim 177 168 171 151 171 120 175 182 168 199 156 167 45.78

Penang Butterworth 161 187 204 184 195 158 185 167 167 176 175 178 48.79

Bayan Lepas 142 190 205 190 189 155 177 177 169 180 179 178 48.64

Perak Ipoh 186 201 218 193 202 168 229 185 183 209 189 197 53.87

Sitiawan 139 189 197 185 189 146 191 171 149 175 163 172 47.17

Parit Buntar 164 179 183 168 163 147 164 162 129 152 157 161 44.03

Selangor Petaling Jaya

197 219 209 196 209 187 217 199 178 235 208 205 56.14

Subang 197 217 212 206 212 193 219 185 182 225 203 205 56.06

Negeri Sembilan

Kuala Pilah N/A N/A 137 125 126 153 163 136 125 189 186 149 40.79

Malacca Bandar Melaka

140 150 171 170 190 158 176 149 162 177 200 168 45.90

Johor Senai 166 205 208 205 215 186 202 183 194 195 210 197 54.02

Tangkak 162 157 172 177 179 141 146 132 106 158 166 154 42.24

Kluang 181 193 194 200 191 175 192 171 164 202 187 186 51.06

Mersing 152 179 195 212 196 169 201 171 170 164 172 180 49.34

Pahang Kuantan 140 170 222 197 208 173 211 178 175 181 192 186 50.98

Muadzam Shah

154 166 187 189 186 185 182 172 149 159 164 172 47.15

Temerloh 148 163 190 190 192 157 189 171 153 183 170 173 47.47

Bentong 190 188 212 187 175 149 175 185 168 220 203 187 51.11

Batu Embun 169 175 210 196 197 160 203 178 153 188 188 183 50.24

Cameron Highland

215 221 258 241 234 203 239 216 215 249 238 230 62.99

Terengganu K. Terengganu 130 156 186 171 166 145 179 157 164 160 173 162 44.51

Kemaman 155 176 211 191 207 183 206 166 167 188 188 185 50.76

Kelantan Kota Bahru 148 169 194 161 166 149 184 150 171 168 177 167 45.75

Kuala Krai 163 177 204 193 190 176 195 174 178 186 199 185 50.68

Average rain day

163 180 196 184 186 162 187 169 164 186 185

Average % 44.77 49.36 53.64 50.38 51.02 44.33 51.3 46.35 44.98 51.06 50.77

Note: Days that recorded trace is negligible. Trace is defined as rainfall measurement less than 0.1 mm.

42


Table A3-3 Frequency of dry spell period – gap between rain and no-rain days (1 to 7 consecutive days) for the period of 1997 to 2007

State Location 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Perlis Chuping 293 150 62 54 32 19 7

Kedah Alor Setar 322 132 70 49 26 15 15

Baling 263 160 83 56 32 16 18

Kulim 180 114 73 48 28 16 20

Penang Butterworth 278 142 93 49 37 22 14

Bayan Lepas 318 150 68 51 26 27 14

Perak Ipoh 378 166 85 48 24 19 8

Sitiawan 344 153 102 54 36 27 13

Parit Buntar 270 149 68 60 24 27 20

Selangor Petaling Jaya 387 171 87 40 41 13 10

Subang 386 160 82 42 29 17 14

Malacca Bandar Melaka 323 170 91 66 41 29 25

Johor Senai 393 175 70 44 25 21 10

Tangkak 315 182 113 71 36 24 19

Kluang 392 175 98 43 33 15 14

Mersing 369 165 79 45 32 21 13

Pahang Kuantan 352 127 101 47 27 18 11

Muadzam Shah

378 159 85 47 41 17 17

Temerloh 351 167 84 62 33 25 15

Bentong 364 171 90 47 33 20 8

Batu Embun 384 173 89 56 22 16 12

Cameron Highland

302 120 65 35 19 17 10

Terengganu K. Terengganu 279 139 94 50 36 16 14

Kemaman 339 172 83 40 31 23 13

Kelantan Kota Bahru 281 139 80 43 39 20 19

Kuala Krai 325 160 85 33 25 18 12

43


Table A3-4 Frequency of dry spell period – gap between rain and no-rain days (7 days group) for the period of 1997 to 2007

State Location 1–7 8–14 15–21

22–28

29–35

36–42

43–49

50–56

57–63

64–70

Max

Perlis Chuping 617 37 11 5 2 1 0 0 0 1 66

Kedah Alor Setar 629 35 6 7 2 1 0 0 0 1 66

Baling 628 49 13 3 1 0 0 0 1 1 64

Kulim 479 46 13 5 1 2 1 0 0 0 44

Penang Butterworth 635 41 8 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 23

Bayan Lepas 654 38 12 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 31

Perak Ipoh 728 30 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 21

Sitiawan 729 35 7 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 34

Parit Buntar 618 60 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 21

Selangor Petaling Jaya

749 25 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 17

Subang 730 26 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 19


745 32 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 26

Johor Senai 738 27 5 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 26

Tangkak 760 39 7 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 37

Kluang 770 28 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 31

Mersing 724 33 5 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 40

Pahang Kuantan 683 38 7 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 31

Muadzam Shah

744 33 9 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 28

Temerloh 737 43 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 23

Bentong 733 33 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20

Batu Embun 752 33 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 25

Cameron Highland

568 26 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 26

Terengganu K. Terengganu

628 49 14 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 33

Kemaman 701 32 8 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 29

Kelantan Kota Bahru 621 47 13 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 32

Kuala Krai 658 40 8 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 26

44


Table A3-5 Average wind speed and maximum wind speed (Locations in bold are close to or surrounded by the shore)

State Location 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Max

Perlis Chuping 1.53 1.49 1.26 1.14 1.34 1.55 1.33 1.16 1.30 1.10 1.06 4.6

Kedah Alor Setar 1.18 1.34 1.12 0.93 1.03 1.77 1.73 1.78 1.79 1.78 1.76 4.7

Penang Butterworth 2.27 2.24 2.31 2.35 2.31 2.26 2.30 2.36 1.66 1.97 2.02 4.7

Bayan Lepas 1.78 1.59 1.69 1.58 1.72 1.89 1.90 1.96 2.08 2.01 2.00 5.3

Perak Ipoh 1.05 1.11 1.09 1.08 0.88 0.80 1.16 1.44 1.65 1.68 1.66 3.5

Sitiawan 1.26 1.11 1.12 1.14 1.19 0.94 0.63 0.70 1.01 0.82 1.21 3.1

Selangor Subang 1.73 1.88 1.73 1.34 1.76 1.60 1.73 1.69 1.47 1.31 1.58 4.0


1.54 1.51 1.39 1.36 1.19 1.22 1.32 1.42 1.89 1.84 1.93 5.2

Johor Senai 1.29 1.18 1.24 1.08 1.11 1.25 1.32 1.39 1.42 1.34 1.51 4.3

Kluang 1.00 0.83 0.88 0.66 0.66 1.03 0.76 0.68 0.98 0.92 0.96 3.3

Mersing 2.81 2.64 2.85 2.48 2.65 3.12 3.18 2.77 2.76 2.77 2.71 9.3

Pahang Kuantan 1.93 1.79 2.02 1.77 1.66 1.63 1.70 1.74 1.53 1.66 1.60 4.4

Muadzam

Shah

1.03 1.10 1.05 0.86 0.75 0.78 0.45 0.36 0.87 0.95 0.93 4.6

Temerloh 0.52 0.53 0.61 0.57 0.58 0.63 0.51 0.43 0.81 0.92 0.93 4.9

Batu Embun 0.42 0.29 0.35 0.39 0.34 0.50 0.38 0.26 0.60 0.69 0.64 1.6

Cameron Highland

1.95 2.06 1.86 1.75 1.66 1.84 2.00 1.69 1.90 2.04 1.94 8.6

Terengganu K. Terengganu

2.14 2.27 1.81 1.39 1.48 1.88 1.88 1.90 1.79 1.92 2.02 7.7

Kelantan Kota Bahru 1.68 1.88 1.99 1.86 2.49 2.33 2.35 2.50 2.35 2.20 2.32 6.6

Kuala Krai 0.85 0.84 0.69 0.50 0.57 0.61 0.84 0.52 0.87 0.82 0.95 2.5

Note: Wind speed in metre per second (m/s)

45


Appendix 4

Table A4-1 PLUS accident records according to weather condition

Year WeatherAccident severity Actual

traffic volume

(mil.)

Fatal Serious injury

Minor injury

Damage only

Total

2003

Fine 238 929 1 140 3 191 5 497

323.2

Rain 36 128 266 1 674 2 105

Windy 0 3 5 7 15

Foggy/Haze

1 3 3 13 20

Total 275 1 063 1 414 4 885 7 637

2004

Fine 209 904 1 147 3 157 5 417

332.5

Rain 30 131 243 1 532 1 936

Windy 0 1 1 1 3

Foggy/Haze

1 1 2 12 16

Total 240 1 037 1 393 4 702 7 372

2005

Fine 214 1 012 1 000 3 133 5 359

337.5

Rain 20 132 161 1 376 1 689

Windy 0 2 1 2 5

Foggy/Haze

3 13 4 15 35

Total 237 1 159 1 166 4 526 7 088

2006

Fine 199 975 1 013 3 012 5 199

342.4

Rain 32 147 219 1 588 1 986

Windy 1 5 10 21 37

Foggy/Haze

1 5 2 15 23

Total 233 1 132 1 244 4 636 7 245

2007

Fine 205 1 068 967 3 206 5 446

367.6

Rain 44 150 233 1 667 2 094

Windy 0 6 4 17 27

Foggy/Haze

0 3 2 2 7

Total 249 1 227 1 206 4 892 7 574

Grand Total 1 234 5 618 6 423 23 641 36 916 1 703.3

Designed by: Publication Unit, Miros

MRev 03/2009

MIROS Review Report

Weather as a Road Safety Hazardin Malaysia - An Overview


Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research Lot 125-135, Jalan TKS 1, Taman Kajang Sentral43000 Kajang, Selangor Darul EhsanTel +603 8924 9200 Fax +603 8733 2005Website www.miros.gov.my Email [email protected]

MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF ROAD SAFETY RESEARCHZulhaidi Mohd Jawi

Mohd Hafzi Md IsaRohayu Sarani

Wong Shaw Voon, PhDAhmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah, PhD

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