Malaysia should raise the minimum age for a motorcycle licence from 16 to 18 to curb illegal street racing, says Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) chairman Prof Dr Wong Shaw Voon. He said children as young as 12 are already riding motorcycles without licences, with underage riders ranging from primary to secondary school pupils exposed to accident risks and illegal racing.
However, Wong cautioned that raising the age limit to 18 or even 21 would have little effect if existing laws against underage riding were not enforced effectively, speaking to Utusan Malaysia. “Many underage children do not care whether the minimum age is raised because they are already riding illegally. If this group is not dealt with first, any change to the age limit will achieve little,” he said.
