RTD has no special plans to get heavily tinted taxis off the road

LADIES, your safety is in your hands.

That was the response of Road Transport Department director-general Datuk Solah Mat Hassan to our front-page report yesterday highlighting that women were now afraid to board tinted taxis following the highly publicised rape of a 17-year-old girl in a heavily-tinted taxi in broad daylight by a man dubbed the Scorpion.

Bad enough that the RTD can't deal with rogue taxis, now they don't seem to take seriously the threat faced by women passengers.

We reported that women are now arming themselves with self-defence products, are shunning cubs driven by foreigners and reluctant to board empty buses.

Our checks yesterday revealed that many heavily-tinted public transport vehicles were still on the road.

"Women passengers should take their safety into their own hands. If they see a heavily-tinted cab and think that it looks dangerous or find that there is a reason to suspect the driver, then don't take it," he told Malay Mail yesterday, when asked when RTD would be acting against heavily-tinted cabs.

"We don't have any special operations for this (catching drivers of heavily-tinted cabs). We only have our routine enforcement operations where of course, one of the things we look out for is whether the level of tinting is within regulations or not.

"However, we also need the public to cooperate with us on this. If they see a cab which looks to have flouted the law, inform us. Then we can act and conduct inspections on the reported vehicles," he said.

The indifferent attitude of the authorities has prompted an outcry from community leaders and NGOs who demanded that the authorities get their act together and put an end to the blatant disregard for passengers' safety.

Even Subang Jaya assemblyman Hannah Yeoh had said in our report that she "didn't feel safe taking public transportation".

"It's a problem in Malaysia. Every one of us has heard of somebody becoming a victim of crime while taking public transportation. I really feel the authorities must buck up. Honestly, a lot of women are very afraid to go out these days," she said.

Yeoh's concern is justified as the victim of the Scorpion had boarded a cab in SS14, Subang Jaya before she was taken to a yard at a condominium at Kelana Jaya where she was raped.

The suspect, a married man with two children, was picked up from his home in Persiaran Kewajipan, also in Subang Jaya. The victim had told police that the man had tattoos on his shoulders, one of which was a scorpion. (MMail)