A Facebook post has been making the rounds, put up by user Zairul Ezam, who remarked on the fact he saw 63 motorcyclists over the course of 18 days wearing their jacket on backwards. This means the rider simply puts his or her jacket on back-to-front, arms in the sleeves and unfastened at the back.
Zairul terms this a danger, relating the story of an accident that occurred when he was in secondary school, when a senior was riding his motorcycle wearing his jacket in the aforementioned manner. As he was riding, the back of the jacket, flapping in the wind, got caught on the edge of a cement lorry deck while he was overtaking, and the rider was flung to his death under the lorry.
Since then, Zairul has tried to advise motorcyclists to wear their jackets in the proper manner, to avoid instances where the rider’s jacket may get caught in a car’s wing mirror or door handle, while negotiating traffic. Zairul relates two instances where he spoke to riders on the road, and asked them to wear their jackets properly.
The first rider quickly tucked in his jacket before riding off, while the second looked at Zairul up and down before staring him in the eyes and saying “Innalillah” (we belong to Allah) and riding off. Zairul mentions he wears a water-proof jacket while riding on his daily 68-kilometer commute and expressed hope that riders wear their gear properly.
It cannot be denied that many Malaysian motorcyclists have a lackadaisical attitude towards correctly wearing proper riding gear, let alone wearing gear at all. It is understandable that many consider wearing motorcycle gear a nuisance in our tropical weather, preferring to just ride around in a t-shirt and shorts or jeans, with feet shod in sandals and hands left bare.
Even helmets are sometimes an after-thought, with cheap plastic helmets well past their use-by date, frayed chin strap undone, slammed onto the rider’s head any old how. A lot of this comes down to the lack of rider education and more importantly, the rider’s attitude and perception towards safety.
Too many riders are careless to the extreme about personal safety while riding on Malaysian roads, preferring to blame the other party, usually a car driver when an accident happens. While statistics show that the majority of motorcycle fatalities are caused by cars, the onus remains on the rider to be aware, defensive and take responsibility for their personal safety.
This means that a rider should be wearing safety gear, like in the case of France, which mandates all riders wear, at a minimum, a helmet and gloves. For our riding conditions, with the heat that riders have to deal with, vented mesh jackets with inserts in the shoulders and elbows are available, and typically cost around RM400 for the lower-end models, going up to thousands of ringgit for Italian designs.
Gloves are similar, with simple woven nylon gloves from around RM200 easily available in most motorcycle accessory stores. No one is saying every rider needs to wear leather racing gauntlets with kevlar reinforcement and titanium knuckles – the author has several pairs of these for racing, and they cost well above RM1,000 – but a modicum of money spent on hand protection pays dividends when, and we say when, not if, a rider takes a spill.
And touching on the issue of helmets, most Malaysian motorcyclists buy a helmet that meets the bare minimum of safety regulations at the cheapest possible price. Matters like fit, impact protection, eye protection and the like are put aside, as long as the helmet is cheap and the police don’t stop them.
At the end of it, wearing proper motorcycle riding gear, manufactured to genuine safety standards, is the best personal protection a rider is going to get. Good equipment is not cheap, no doubt, but the price of injury or death can be beyond measure.
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Simple explaination on this issue, belum kena belum tahu.sudah kena confirm takmau buat lagi.
But to be fair most motorcylist are from low/b40 income group and as author mentioned in the article, those protective gears price are not in their affordable price bracket.there may be other necessities that outweigh these safety gears, in their view, at least.
Nevertheless, riding is inherently dangerous. Be safe everyone.
This is very bad but there is something even worse. That is beating traffic lights. Every day, hundreds of thousands of motorbikes beat read lights. According to PDRM, it is the No 1 cause of major accidents plus the No 1 cause of deaths.
This is perpetuated by PDRM. Most of the offenders beat the red lights infront of polis officers. And all the polis officer does is just keep quiet and make don’t know.
Most of the times, the junction is manned by 3 or 4 officers. And they just look at the offender. They don’t even jot down the offender’s bike number nor give a chase to the offender.
In other countries, CCTV will actually track anyone who beats red lights and the offender will be arrested days later.
It is because of this attitude of tidak apa attitude that has cause motorbikes to continuously beat the red lights.
Time for a change. Remember, this is the No 1 cause of accidents and deaths in Malaysia
see the majority riding moto. They are so unruly.
In Malaysia, there are hundred of kampungs. Even in Klang Valley got so many kampungs. Sg Way, Kampung Baru, Kampung Medan, Kayu Ara etc etc. All of them don’t wear helmet
Everyday you can see in EACH kampung, hundreds don’t wear helmet. Then they carry 3 or 4 anak on the bike. All also don’t wear helmet.
This is far worse than wearing jacket upside down.
Worst r those in Kepong, Balakong, Seri Kembangan, Cheras, Ampang areas. Not only they dun wear helmet, they speed on roads like its a hiway.
Not just in Kampungs, it’s happening right in the heart of Shah Alam and I see it everyday. Parents sending their children to school without helmets. Grandfathers and fathers giving their children and grandchildren a joyride on their bikes and putting them in the baskets, without helmets for good measure. Underage children riding and racing with their Kapchais without their parents knowledge,etc, etc.
The seeds of apathy was sown at a very young age, and it is no wonder that Malaysia have a very high death rate involving motorcyclists.
Don’t just put the burden on our Policemen to keep you safe, the burden of responsibility would be on the parents.
I once told my son to walk to school because I caught him riding off without properly strapping his helmets first.
Full face helmet ftw even though you ride a kapcai.Many malaysian thought wearing a full face helmet while riding a kapcai is stupid and you look like a freakin clown.The government should make the full face helmet as mandatory just like the Philippines.
Philippines only mandate full face helmet for delivery services riders… and is typically provided by the company.
I think this is a small step that we could follow.
The mentality need to change especially on the helmet part.The government should ban the open face helmet for good and make the full face as mandatory.Speak about helmet,the squid riders always say”kau pakai kapcai je,tk pyh nk pakai helmet fullface bagai,moto kau bukannya laju mana pun”Bro think of it,if I scrap my face on the road,who gonna pay for my medical bill?you?That kind of thought need stop for good.
-Rakyat yang perihatin
Great article but I don’t think the target group reads ‘paultan’.
Anyway even if it is rm20 for a pair of gloves , they would term it too expensive …
Hence, Zairul should just focus on
himself:)
I’m not from your country, but I wonder what is even the point of wearing a jacket like that? Does it save time over putting a jacket on correctly? Is it because the wearer is too hot, do people not know how to do the zipper halfway up? I am genuinely curious why someone on a motorcycle or scooter would wear a jacket backwards
Its easier to put on and remove the jacket, thats why. In other word, lazy.
As a wind breaker. Wearing jacket backwards will insulate riders from the wind blast, and oso rain drops hitting body. Wearing the jacket correctly will cause it to balloon when air gets under it and it then becomes dangerous.
More than 70% of accidents in Malaysia involve motorcycles. Whether caused by other vehicles or motorcyclists themselves, often times it doesn’t end well for the latter.
Almost all of us don’t want to admit that riding motorcycles is outright dangerous.
I still remember Samy Vellu banned motorcycles from using MEX highway (one of the straightest highway in Klang Valley) when it was just opened to public, because there’s no dedicated motorbike lane, but after much hues and cries, they were allowed again. Now, every once a while I see accident, mostly motorbikes lah.
Whatever that is being advised like wearing jacket properly, or changing to proper helmet, or using turn indicator when switching lanes, or other good advise can only do so much. They’re still susceptible to road hazard any way we look at it. A hard to swallow fact.
It’s about time we do the right thing. Ban motorcycles for personal use. Only restricted commercial use should be allowed.
The problem is only easy said than done because politicians don’t got no balls to do the right thing.
banning motorcycles for personal use is a no brainer. a lot of malaysians cannot afford a car, even worse some can’t even meet requirements for a car loan.
If they are involved in an accident, only pay RM 1 to visit the hospital. Bercukurlah
Not just motorbike… car also the same.
Many times I saw baby or small children jumping around the car or just sit on their parent’s lap.
Ironic is that they can spent thousands to modify their cars but can’t put their child on baby seat nor wear seat belt
To get Malaysians to do something, convince them that it makes them look cool. If helmets, jackets and gloves become a fashion statement, people will love to wear them. Who cares about safety?
get a car with 5 stars crash test and everything is done.
Being a biker myself..I agreed that it is essential to wear the basic necessary gears properly, but then again my personal view is sometimes it’s the rider’s attitude himself. I’ve encountered many riders donning all the fancy, branded or expensive safety accessories stuffs but still rides like an idiot disregarding and breaking every rules that is.
One does not need a license B to purchase a bike, this is at least the case for where I’m based. Before we beg our govt to enforce laws, we must educate the generations to come to properly exercise defensive riding. A good attitude is what keeps a rider alive, not the gears themselves.
Ban motorbikes from expressways too, I mean, there’s dedicated motorcycle lane so why are motorbikes still speeding on Federal Highway squeezing between cars? Worse are the dumb motorcyclists who ride slowly while hogging half the road.
Motorcycles on the Federal Highway…sometimes the bike lanes are closed due to work being done either to the bike lane or in the vicinity areas. But the contractors are a bit irresponsible…they just divert traffic out to the highway but don’t divert them back to the bike lane. I would prefer to ride in the bike lane as it is safer…but sometimes no choice…
Attitude is what that is typically lacking with Malaysians, riders and drivers alike. Riding a motorcycle is about managing risk because there is a price to pay from our wallet and physical pain when an accident happens even with gear on. We should take active responsibility of of our own safety instead of blaming others. Riding gear should be the last line of defense.
Wearing proper riding gear may grant us a second chance to learn from our mistake(to not repeat it!), without a basic requirement of even a helment; a simple corning mistake can be your last.
Not just motorcyclist…its a common sight where even driver of lux cars with soo many airbags but they children/toodler just standing or on the laps of the mother at the front seat…..just waiting either being flung out of the windscreen or punch by a inflating airbag….sigh, msian hv no sense of road safety!