BY JACINTHA JOLENE & LILIANA SHERYN
KUCHING: The Ministry of Transport Sarawak (MOTS) will hold the Sarawak Traffic Games this year, said its minister Datuk Seri Lee Kim Shin.
The games, previously known as the Shell Traffic Games, were last held in 2015.
Lee said their revival was vital to create greater awareness of road safety among road users in Sarawak.
“The Sarawak Road Safety Traffic Games will be part of the road safety educational programme in schools throughout Sarawak, starting at the divisional levels and eventually moving up to state-level competitions.
“In the past, we invested in quite a lot of traffic gardens in Sarawak and there are six traffic garden for the purpose of holding traffic games located in Kuching, Sri Aman, Sibu, Bintulu, Miri and Sarikei.
“So, we will start with these six (traffic gardens). If the response from the public is good, perhaps the other divisions can also build traffic gardens for the purpose of holding traffic games as a long-term project to create greater awareness and train young road users,” he said.
Lee told reporters this after visiting the Kenyalang Traffic Garden here today (March 30).
He said the revival of the traffic games was an exciting development for road safety in Sarawak.
He hoped they would help reduce road accidents in the state.
Apart from reviving the traffic games, Lee said the Sarawak Road Safety Council was also promoting the ABC (Attitude, Behaviour, Change) Road Safety Programme among divisional road safety councils.
Earlier, the Sarawak Road Safety Council meeting was held and Lee said that Deputy Minister of Transport (Aviation and Roads) Datuk Dr Jerip Susil would head the Sarawak Road Safety Traffic Games committee.
“The committee will work it out and source for support for the purchase of the equipment. Every division will have its own set of equipment.
“The committee will have to take care of the equipment such as cars, bicycles, signages and others,” he added.
In addition, he said the committee would inspect all the traffic gardens and carry out upgrading and maintenance works if needed.
Also present were Dr Jerip and Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Mayor Datuk Wee Hong Seng.
