Effectiveness of Traffic Reminders on Malaysian Public Radio

This research proposes to examine the extent to which road safety reminders that are aired by public radio in Malaysia are effective in the prevention of traffic accidents. In this research, the author tries to make an evaluation of the provided public service announcements (PSAs) in two periods, 2005-2015 and 2020-2023, for determining the reflection of these PSAs on accidents frequency and driver behavior. The study is informed by a literature review that shows that radio is important in passing safety messages especially in the rural areas where get other forms of media such as television or newspapers. Importantly, the study findings indicate that the higher the radio campaigns frequency, the lower traffic accidents rates contributing to reduced speeding and distracted driving incidents. But, it also reveals the require of constant reorientation of such campaigns to deal with new threats and trends in media consumptions. Even though it answers the hypothesis on the positive effect of radio-based safety prompts, the results suggest that other road safety communications should not be restricted to radio interventions. This probably has an implication for future media campaigns in public safety, which can inform road safety campaigns in Malaysia.