Road safety awareness: a study on public perception towards road traffic accidents in Kota Samarahan / Emafazirah Madian and Nur Illyyannie Marhainis

Nowadays, road transport is a necessity since it brings a lot of benefits towards people and the nation itself. It increases access to the workplace, economy sources; facilitate people’s affairs and others. Besides, it is also easy, fast and very effective. However, there is disadvantage in road transport which is road traffic accidents. A Road traffic accident is a global issue that rises year by year. It became a serious and a never ending issue. Generally, it can cause injuries and death. A road traffic accident is defined as an unpleasant event especially in a vehicle that happens unexpectedly (Hornby, 2010). It means that a vehicle that is moving along a roadway collides with another vehicle or objects. It brings impacts towards the victim and its environment. An injury from the road traffic accidents is a number one killer in the world after chronic diseases such as heart disease, strokes, pneumonia and also breathing difficulties (Hussin and Masron, 2015). Based on the statement by World Health Organization in Global Burden of Disease Project in the year of 2004. it shows that road traffic accidents is a serious issue in which it can leads to death as it contribute to 1.27 million fatal accidents every year. (Hussin et al., 2015 cited in WHO, 2009). According to Abdul Karim (2003), the number of accidents is constantly increased throughout the world and by the year of 2020, the road traffic accidents will be the third leading cause of death worldwide. Compared to war and disease, surprisingly the road traffic accidents kill more people (Kareem, 2003).