Incident Rate of Commercial Vehicles in Past Five Years and Regulations and Mitigation Measures Planned

Miss Cheryl Chan Wei Ling asked the Minister for Transport (a) in the past five years, what has been the incident rate of commercial vehicles; and (b) whether there will be regulations requiring heavy commercial vehicles travelling at speeds over 70km per hour to be equipped with lane departure warning, front collision warning and electronic braking systems.

The percentage of heavy commercial vehicles involved in accidents resulting in injuries and fatalities has decreased over the past five years, from about 1.7% of the heavy commercial vehicle population in 2015 or about 800 accident vehicles, to about 1.3% in 2019 or about 560 accident vehicles.

Under the Road Traffic Act, heavy vehicles with a maximum laden weight greater than 12,000 kilogrammes are required to be fitted with speed limiters that prevent them from exceeding the speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour. This means that heavy vehicles are not able to travel above this speed unless the speed limiter has been deactivated or tampered with. The Traffic Police (TP) conducts regular enforcement operations along routes frequented by heavy vehicles to enforce against speeding and tempering of speed limiters. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and TP will continue to study ways to improve road traffic safety, including the technologies suggested by the Member, bearing in mind their effectiveness and impact on businesses and commuters.