Roughly 95.4 per cent of roads at four inter-urban highways in Peninsular Malaysia has been given a rating of three-star under the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

The highways are, namely, from Kuala Lumpur-Bukit Kayu Hitam spanning 929.4 kilometres, Kuala Lumpur-Johor Bahru (621.8km), Kuala Lumpur-Kuantan (454.5km), and Kuala Lumpur-Kuala Terengganu (364.5km). Specifically, the rating is given based on the total of 2,370km of roads in both directions as assessed by the iRAP Star Rating Protocol version 3.

This is an improvement compared to the previous number of 52.4 per cent of roads that were given three-star during the initial assessment.

However, the percentage rose to the present number after a number of quick-fixes which were done within six months. The fixes include installing crash barriers at accident prone areas.

“This is an indicator that the country is now on the right trajectory in achieving 75 per cent of trips on the three-star roads and above by 2020," the minister said.

Liow added that MIROS (Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research) would expand the assessment to urban highways, federal roads and state roads including those in Sabah and Sarawak, spanning over 4,000km beginning this year. The assessment in Sarawak will begin in August while the one in Sabah is set to begin next year.

According to the iRAP assessment system, one-star roads are the least safe while the highest score of five-stars are for roads that offer the safest designs.

The International Road Safety Road Assessment Programme is a registered charity that is dedicated to preventing the more than 3,500 road deaths that occur every day worldwide. It gets funding from a variety of global sources, including the FIA Foundation, the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility, and the Road Safety Fund (jointly managed by the FIA Foundation and the World Health Organisation).