The effect of economic crisis and targeted motorcycle safety program on traffic deaths in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper presents the effects of the recent economic crisis and the motorcycle safety program (MSP) on traffic deaths in Malaysia. The transfer function Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) technique was used to evaluate the overall effects of the interventions. The variables used in developing the model were the population, registered vehicle, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and traffic safety programs. Traffic death data from 1971 to 1998 were taken from the Traffic Police headquarters computer system while the GDP quarterly data were obtained from the Central Bank of Malaysia. The GDP data were used in this analysis since they reflect reasonably well to the effects of the recent economic down turn in the country. In addition, traffic exposure data particularly the number of population and registered vehicles were obtained from Statistical Department, Malaysia for the same years. The final model indicates that changes of population, registered vehicles and economy performance are positively correlated with the traffic deaths. In contrast, the safety intervention (MSP) was found to be significant (p<0.05) in reducing traffic deaths in Malaysia.