The Road Transport Act 1987 has to be amended to impose criminal liability on the registered owners of motor vehicles who consented the use of their motor vehicles leading to accidents by unlicensed riders or drivers.

The five horrible deaths in a multiple-vehicle road accident some days ago (14th January 2025) involving a car driven by a 16-years old boy along the road in Stutong, Kuching, could have been prevented if the registered owner of the vehicle could have stopped or had kept away the keys to the vehicle away from the boy.

As it is now, no one could point fingers to the registered owner whose vehicle was used by an unlicensed juvenile in the accident. Under section 51 of the Road Transport Act 1987 it becomes a defence to the owner of the vehicle to say that the taking out of the vehicle was without his or her consent by the unlicensed driver. The owner could also plead no knowledge of the keys been taken away to drive the vehicle.

Juveniles below the age of legibility to obtain a driving licence, causing deaths of other road users besides other existing punishments, should be banned for life to have any driving licence at all. At the moment, the Road Transport Act 1987 does not provide for this penalty or sanction. Those juveniles who are below the age of eligibility to obtain a driving licence, drives a motorcycle without a helmet on public road is not only a nuisance but a source of danger to other road users. They should be banned from obtaining any driving licence for at least five years from the date of conviction.

VOON LEE SHAN
PRESIDENT PARTI BUMI KENYALANG