PUTRAJAYA: More than 90% of 38,486 motorcyclists checked by the Road Transport Department in a recent operation did not possess a valid licence.

“In addition, we found during the operation that the road tax of 2,111 motorcyclists had expired," said RTD enforcement director Salim Parlan.

"This is serious because if these motorcyclists are involved in an accident, they would have no insurance coverage," he told members of the media after a meeting between RTD, the Road Safety Department, Malaysia Institute of Road Safety Research, the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board and the police on Wednesday.

"Just this morning alone, we issued 277 summonses against motorcyclists, 214 of whom had no road tax.

“Based on these findings and the fact that motorcyclists form the biggest group of road deaths, we have decided to target them in our next enforcement exercise,” he said, adding that the current operation - Ops Bersih III - would last until Dec 4.

Salim said that during the operation targeting express buses between Aug 22 and Oct 6, RTD officers had managed to check 952 buses at the country’s 33 terminals.

“Our undercover officers also reported 3,385 cases of drivers flouting various offences during this period,” he said.