Discounts for traffic summons dilutes impact of law enforcement, say experts

Discounts for traffic summons dilutes impact of law enforcement, say experts





WHILE it has become something of a custom for the government to offer discounts for traffic summons each year, two road safety experts have noted that such a move is counterintuitive and will encourage motorists to disregard traffic laws.


In fact, such “culture” of offering discounts for summons has done nothing but dilute the impact of law enforcement as a whole, Universiti Putra Malaysia road safety research centre’s Law Teik Hua was quoted as saying by FMT.

“No one is going to respect the law if they know that, at the end of the day, the government will give a discount,” he told the news portal.


According to Law, the government considered summonses as a means of earning revenue rather than penalties for those who break traffic laws.

This is in contrary to the actual purpose of issuing summons, which is supposed to be hard on offenders to deter them from breaking the law in the future.

Law stressed that the demerit system which is currently in place should be enforced more widely to discourage traffic offences, adding that the “pain” of having one’s drivers’ license suspended or revoked would serve as a good deterrent.

Meanwhile, Tengku Ahmad Marwan Tengku Mahmud, a road safety affiliate with the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) told the news portal that there was no such thing as discounts for traffic summons in developed countries.

Concurring with Law, Tengku Ahmad pointed out that the demerit system should see stricter enforcement, which ultimately boils down to a matter of the authorities’ willpower.

“In the UK, people obey traffic rules because they know that even though they may be able to pay the summons, they will not be able to run away from the demerit points,” he remarked.

“So, even rich people over there are not willing to commit traffic violations because they know once enough points are taken off for the violations, their licence will be revoked or cancelled by the authorities.”

It was reported last week that according to the Road Transport Department (JPJ) a total of 146,261 demerit points were imposed on motorists from January 2022 to April 5.

A total of 412 drivers were also suspended for the first time, 75 were suspended for a second time, while seven were given their third suspensions.

On April 18, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced a one-month special discount for traffic summonses issued by the police with a flat rate of RM50 for offences that took place any time before 2023.

Previously, the police and JPJ regularly offer discounts on traffic summons.

In March, the police offered a 60% discount on selected traffic summons from March 20 until the month’s end in conjunction with the Police Day celebration. Similarly, JPJ had also offered 80% discounts on summonses for two weeks in Dec 2021. – April 26, 2023