SHAH ALAM: More than 15,000 suspended motorists in Selangor are driving around without a valid road tax, insurance and licence, endangering other road users.

Selangor Public Order and Traffic Police Chief Superintendent Che Hussin Omar said 15,000 is a conservative figure but it is half of the first batch of 38,597 motorists who have been issued with a Warrant of Arrest (WA) under Ops Warta 1 for this year.

He added that the motorists are unable to renew their documents as their names had been blacklisted at the Road Transport Department (JPJ) pending the settlement of their traffic summonses.

From Thursday, Selangor traffic police in all nine districts will call on traffic offenders at their home or office with a WA and take the offender to the nearest police station to settle the summons.

“Our men have to take stern action because when a collision occurs, it’s far more likely that someone will suffer serious injury or die. If this involves unlicensed drivers, this would put the victim in a tough situation relating to accident claims,” he said.

Supt Hussin added that the Ops Warta 1 is to create an environment of responsibility and to put a halt to irresponsible motorists on the roads.

“Actually we secured WAs for 44,700 motorist but 6,103 had come forward and these motorists had to settle the maximum fine of RM300 for each offence,” he said.

Selangor police collected RM1,830,900 from the 6,103 and if the 38,597 settle their dues it would amount to RM11.5mil.

He added from January to August this year the traffic department had issued 423,280 summonses for various traffic offences including speeding, beating red lights, driving recklessly and driving without valid documents.

From the total summonses issued over the eight months, 173,568 had settled their dues. Supt Hussin said now 279,712 are yet to come forward to settle their traffic summonses.

Motorists wanting to check if there are any summonses against them can send an SMS with the words "POLIS(space)SAMAN(space)car number" and send it to 32728 or check at www.myeg.com.my / www.rileks.com.my or www.eservices.com.my.