Issues related to tyre safety are one of the major concerns when discussing the motor-vehicles' safety. Moreover, various articles reported in the print and electronic media on tyre failures, particularly involving retread tyres were often associated as the cause of crashes. However, before any effective solutions can be proposed to the relevant authorities, weaknesses and loopholes in the current ecosystem needs to be identified. Thus, this paper is aimed at reviewing the current status of motor vehicle tyre ecosystem in the country and establishing the knowledge on current related issues. This paper will look into five stages in the ecosystem, from tyre production until disposal and tyre scraping. Current and potential gaps are identified and recommendations to improve the situations are put forward. To enable a clearer explanation of the issues found and the proposed recommendations, the findings are tabulated according to each stage. The findings are expected to provide useful insights into the current status and issues in the ecosystem, and providing a useful and beneficial method of solution.

Motorcycle is the primary mode of motor transportation in ASEAN countries including Malaysia. Nonetheless, motorcycle crashes have contributed more than 50% of the total number of fatalities due to motor vehicle crashes. High numbers of fatalities in motor vehicle crashes are a significant concern to Malaysia. On average, the number of fatalities increased by 4% every year. To address this problem, more intervention shall be taken to reduce motorcycle-related motor vehicle crashes. Passenger vehicle is the most frequent crash partner of motorcycle in Malaysia, thus, the characteristics of this kind of crashes shall be studied holistically to understand the contributing factors to crashes involving passenger vehicle and motorcycle. To achieve the objectives, this study has analysed 55 cases of crash involving motorcycle and passenger vehicle, which are obtained from in-depth crash investigation process from June 2016 until July 2017. The in-depth crash investigation has collected and analysed vehicle and site parameters including the crash configuration. It was found that the passenger vehicle was at fault in more than 60% of the investigated cases. The crashes mostly occurred whenever the passenger vehicle was changing lane to the left and was making a right turn in the junction. This indicated that the passenger vehicle drivers were unaware or overestimated the distance between the motorcycle and their vehicle. Therefore, new technology, which can detect the position and distance of motorcycles around the passenger vehicle, can possibly alert the driver from making inaccurate decisions while attempting to change lane or making a right turn.

The study analyses 55 real world crashes involving motorcycles with passenger cars through on-the-spot crash investigation. Analysis was performed based on input gathered during vehicle damage assessment, crash site inspection and injury information provided by the treating hospital. Through the analysis performed, the data revealed that weekday crashes mostly occurred during morning period while weekend crashes were more prevalent at night. Crashes occurring during weekends were less likely to occur between 06:00 until 11:59 and 6.125 times more likely to occur during the night period (18:00 – 23:59). Most of the motorcycle – passenger vehicle crashes investigated involved situations whereby both the vehicles were travelling in the same direction, with one of the vehicle in turning manoeuvre. Moreover, 61.8% of the investigated crashes occurred when the passenger vehicles were at fault. The data revealed 28.7% of the involved riders suffered injuries to lower extremities, followed by head and neck injuries at 25%. In terms of injury severity of the involved riders, odds ratio value reveals that side impact, compared to other types of crash configuration were 3.750 times more likely to result in MAIS 3 and above. The result also proved that impact speed has a significant effect on the injury severity of the riders. MAIS level 2 and below injury severities were over presented for the lower range impact speeds while an adverse trend was observed for the higher range impact speeds.

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In Malaysia, 6,570 fatalities were recorded as a result of road deaths in 2016. From that figure, 1,197 or 18.2% were involved in side- impact collisions. An in-depth crash investigation study was conducted by utilizing data from the MIROS crash investigation database (MICARS) to better understand the mechanism and characteristics of the crash and to correlate the impact and damages profile with the injury outcome of the involved occupants related to the side-impact crash. The data obtained from MICARS for this study was selected from 2007 until 2016, during which MIROS had investigated 794 for both East and West Malaysia. Out of that number, 41 cases involving passenger vehicles were selected for analysis purposes. The results found that the risk of serious or fatal injury to nearside occupants was eight times higher compared to the far-side occupants. Besides that, the use of the restraint system does not show a significant association with the occupants' fatality. In a conclusion, car manufacturers should equip all new passenger vehicle models with passive safety features such as side and curtain airbags and should also increase the rigidity of the side structure of the said vehicles to reduce the injury severity level of the occupants. Furthermore, the government needs to review all these issues together with the vehicle manufacturers to make it become a Malaysian Standard before mandating it for all passenger vehicles in Malaysia. Thus, continuous efforts and commitment by car manufacturers and the government are essential to produce safer cars with proper and adequate active and passive safety features.