ACCIDENTS INVOLVING MINISTRY OF DEFENCE VEHICLES (Particulars)

Mr Ng Kah Ting asked the Minister of Defence how many vehicles of his Ministry were involved in accidents in 1976, 1977 and 1978; how many of the accidents were serious and how many were fatal; and what steps have been or are being taken to reduce the number of accidents to the minimum.

The Minister of Defence (Mr Howe Yoon Chong): Mr Speaker, Sir, in answer to the question from the Member for Punggol, the figures he has requested are as follows.

In 1976 SAF vehicles involved in traffic accidents totalled 1,457. Of these accidents, three resulted in fatalities and 175 involved serious injuries. The corresponding figures for 1977 were 1,271 with eight fatalities and 190 involving serious injuries. For 1978 there were 1,351 accidents with four fatalities and 232 involving serious injuries. I think all of us are concerned that these figures should be reduced as far as possible.

The Ministry of Defence is taking various measures to curb the SAF accident rate. These measures include:

(a) strict enforcement of speed limits on military vehicles by military police motorcycle squads;

(b) imposition of fines on drivers and vehicle commanders found guilty of speeding and negligence;

(c) special instructions on defensive driving to teach SAF drivers how to handle road hazards, such as skidding;

(d) restriction of movement of heavy military vehicles like low-loaders, to only off-peak hours under military police escort;

(e) proper vehicle maintenance, with strict inspection at regular intervals to ensure road worthiness of every MINDEF vehicle.

In addition to the above, certain preventive measures are also taken. These include:

(a) incentives for accident-free regular driver;

(b) qualification for civilian driving licence on completion of two years' driving provided that there has been no blemish of more than two traffic accidents;

(c) withdrawal of accident prone drivers for proficiency tests and transfer of those who cannot pass such tests;

(d) transfer of drivers away from driving immediately after an accident involving death until after the Traffic Police or the Civil Courts have exonerated them.

By the middle of this year it is hoped that a special driving circuit will be ready at Keat Hong to improve the training facilities for SAF drivers. This driving circuit has been specially designed to enable trainee drivers to be exposed to all the possible road hazards and to prepare all SAF drivers adequately to drive safely and carefully on our public roads.

Mr Ng Kah Ting: Sir, does the Minister of Defence not disagree with me that most of the drivers of these vehicles are national servicemen? In that sense, they are very young, 18 years and above, and therefore considering this aspect would he not engage professional drivers with a view to further curbing the numerous accidents in the last three years?

Mr Howe Yoon Chong: Sir, we in the Ministry of Defence consider driving as part of the instruction which national servicemen should have, because should we go to war we cannot say that we should have professional drivers to drive our lorries. I agree with him that the drivers are all very young because they come in only for a stint of two to 2 1/2 years of national service. This is something we cannot avoid. If we want soldiers, we want soldiers who are not only able to fight but also soldiers who are able to get others to the front to fight. Therefore, it is necessary that we continue to employ only national service drivers.

Mr Ng Kah Ting: If that is the case, Sir, maybe the hon. Minister thinks that the measures, both preventive and precautionary, are sufficient to help reduce the number of accidents involving vehicles of his Ministry. Therefore, my question is this: would he not take more measures to further reduce the number of accidents given in the last three years?

I wholeheartedly agree with the Minister that we should prepare our young soldiers to defend the country and that they also have got to know how to transport their fellow soldiers to the battle front.

Mr Howe Yoon Chong: Sir, I do not think we can disagree with the Member for Punggol that even one accident is one accident too many. But I would like to submit for the information of the House that accident rates are dependent on a lot of other considerations besides drivers. Accidents depend on the number of vehicles on the road, the condition of the road, the condition of traffic, the condition of the drivers; and sometimes it may be due to the negligence of the other drivers as well. So we in the Ministry of Defence will try to train our drivers to be as proficient as possible but, as they say, accidents do happen.

Mr Ng Kah Ting: Sir, while I cannot wholeheartedly disagree with the Hon. Minister of Defence, I would also like to submit, with all the reasons given, whether the vehicles have been well maintained, as was pointed out by the Minister for the Environment just now in reply to my question concerning vehicles in his Ministry.

Mr Howe Yoon Chong: Sir, I have stated just now that one of the measures that we take is regular maintenance and strict inspection of our vehicles. I can assure the Member for Punggol that Mindef vehicles are properly maintained and very strictly inspected at all times.

Mr Sia Khoon Seong (Moulmein): Sir, as driving is part of the training, is he not a little alarmed at the standard of training that we have in the national service? In times of peace where conditions are not hostile, the accident rate is already high. What will happen then in times of war where conditions are more difficult? Would we be in a position to defend ourselves when our drivers are not able to drive without meeting accidents?

Mr Howe Yoon Chong: Sir, may I submit that the hon. Member for Moulmein is probably prejudging the issue when he states that the accident rate involving Mindef vehicles is high. I do not want to make comparisons but I would like to give figures to show that our vehicles are no more prone to accidents than many other organisations that have the same number of vehicles. SAF has got 5,800 thin-skin vehicles, that is, not the armoured trucks but just the normal vehicles that we have on the roads, similar to commercial vehicles. Our accident rate is only 1,271 to 1,457 a year. If I am not mistaken, SBS has a smaller number of vehicles. It has got about 2,600 buses on the road, and I think their annual number of accidents is something like 4,800.

The Minister for the Environment gave him some figures. They have got 608 vehicles and there were 268 accidents. If you compare it with our fleet of 5,800 vehicles, only about 1,300 to 1,400 were involved in accidents. I do not think it is right to make a statement that Mindef vehicles are more involved in accidents and that national servicemen cannot drive safely. As far as I know, it is quite creditable that our people have been able to train the national servicemen to drive as well as they do now.

Mr Hwang Soo Jin (Jalan Kayu): Sir, I cannot help making a little comment. I think the Backbench would only be too happy to offer a challenge trophy for an Inter-Ministry competition on road safety!