If someone needs to die to prove a point, so many have

Believe it or not, there have been 193 deaths from accidents involving buses in the past four years, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha told the Dewan Rakyat on Nov 3, 2010. That is such a staggering number, to say the least.

Although he further mentions that this is only a small percentage of the 25,841 road fatalities recorded from 2006 to last year and that the preventive measures are adequate and effective, why do we feel it is still not enough? If the procedures are indeed effectual, then why do these gruesome accidents still persist?

“The number of deaths per 10,000 vehicles has also declined from 4.18 cases in 2005 to 3.55 cases in 2009, and number of those injured due to road accidents have dropped by 42% in five years since the formation of the Road Safety Department,” he said (The Sun, 4 Nov, 2010). As such, Kong said there was no need to set up a royal commission to probe the many accidents involving express buses, including the latest incidents at Simpang Ampat and Genting Sempah.

Replying to the debate on a motion to discuss fatal road accidents involving express buses, he gave these figures:

* 39 deaths from bus accidents out of 6,287 road fatalities in 2006;
* 75 deaths (1.19%) from bus accidents out of 6,282 road fatalities in 2007;
* 48 deaths  (0.74%) from bus accidents out of 6,527 road fatalities in 2008; and
* 31 deaths (0.46%) from bus accidents out of  6,745 road deaths last year (The Sun, 4 Nov, 2010).

We haven’t even had the time to grasps one accident with the horrific number of deaths and causalities; we hear another plunging into an irrigation canal with more fatalities. But who can forget the metal guard rail that sliced into a bus killing ten, the youngest was fourteen while the oldest 64. The accident happened on 26 December 2009.

The double-decker bus which was en route to Perlis struck the rail at 1am in Perak with 48 passengers on board. The victims were on the lower deck when the vehicle skidded, struck and was ripped open on the left-hand side by the rail before swerving across the road to rest against the central divider. A reporter friend covering the accident later told me that some of the victims were decapitated.

It was even more shocking to find out that the bus driver had prior traffic offense convictions, although the bus had not been in any incidents with the police. Police arrested him, noting he was not drunk or on drugs. It was even more sickening to read later that he admitted falling asleep at the wheel just before the crash.

Does these latest bloodbaths on the expressways caused by express buses, show the inefficiency of the Transport Ministry to prevent accidents of this sort on our roads? Are the bus operators at fault for wanting more trips from their drivers to make that extra buck? Were the bus break mechanisms faulty? Should bus drivers take responsibility for the lives that are lost so tragically? Or was it the guardrails that were not strong enough?

Guardrails on most of our highways are not made to resist high-speed impacts especially if vehicles breech the speed limit of 90 to 110kph. According to road safety experts from the government, the guardrails are designed to deflect vehicles upon collision but this will only work if the vehicles keep to the speed limit (The Sun, 20 October 2010).

Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) Director-General Prof Dr Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah said that the guardrail involved in the Simpang Ampat bus crash which killed 13 people and injured 40 others was not designed to withstand the impact of a speeding bus (The Sun, 20 October 2010).

Nineteen days later, another seven people were killed at the KM36 on the Karak Highway. The 7.51pm accident, just before the Karak tunnel involved a group of 42 from the 4B Youth Movement, Kampung Siong, Kedah. More than 20 passengers were wounded when the bus they were travelling in crashed at Genting Sempah along the East Coast Expressway.

The driver of the ill-fated bus, S. Muthumani, 36, apologized unreservedly to the families of the victims citing brake failure as the cause of the accident. An apology at any point will just not ‘cut it’ especially after finding out his license was suspended by the Road Transport Department (JPJ) claiming that it was not a valid license. The worst part was that the bus company knew that he did not have a valid driving license but still allowed him to continue working anyway. Why?

To date the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) has revoked the licenses of the two bus companies involved in the fatal road accidents at Simpang Ampat and Genting Sempah last month.

Pan Malaysia Bus Operators Association Datuk Mohamad Ashfar Ali said the decision to revoke the licenses was a much-needed call to raise the safety focus within the public transport industry. “It is a wakeup call to all of them. It shows the government is serious to raise safety levels within the industry.” He also advised all express bus operators and their drivers to buck up and abide by the Safety, Health and Environment code in the future (Malay Mail, 10 November 2010).

The Association for the Improvement of Mass Transit Malaysia (TRANSIT) chairman Muhammad Zulkarnain Hamzah said the government’s decision to revoke the licenses was a knee-jerk reaction. He felt the tragedies could have been avoided had the government kept an eye on bus operators (Malay Mail, 10 November 2010).

The ministry promised to look into the implementation of a speed-limiter cum Global Positioning System (GPS) a few years ago. Much water has flowed under the bridge since then. If the ministry had pushed for the requirement, many lives would have been saved.

When the government implement the ‘black box’ on government-owned vehicles in 1997 and later extended to express and tour buses the following year, bus operators started to make noise. Some even said that bus tickets would need to be raised to ‘help’ pay for the costs. And because of that reason, its implementation took a back seat.

According to Road Safety Department director-general Datuk Suret Singh, following complaints from bus operators, the system was eventually replaced by the more sophisticated speed limiter and GPS system which are now used by a few bus operators (Malay Mail, 12 October 2010).

The question now is, is it enough? Immediate checks into the conditions of buses and drivers need to be done. Police stationed on all highways daily to check their speed limit or install driving tapes in all buses is a suggestion, as is done in Europe, to monitor drivers. The government should not bow to the needs of bus operators as safety of the passengers is paramount.

If someone needs to die to prove a point, so many have. An apology will not give Adip Ramli, 20, back his amputated legs and no amount of regret can silence the screams of his dead friends as the bus crashed on that ill-fated day at Genting Sempah.

Other tragic bus accidents:

• The 2003 Merapoh bus tragedy took place on 23 November 2003 when an Ekspres Mutiara (Pearl Express) bus collided with another bus at kilometer 63 of Lipis-Merapoh Road (Federal route near the Pahang-Kelantan border. 14 passengers were killed in this accident. Among those killed were a two-year-old girl, eight women and five men.

• The 2006 Nibong Tebal Bus Crash or St Anne Feast Bus Crash took place on 30 July 2006 when 11 pilgrims to the annual St Anne Feast were killed when the chartered bus they were in rolled over twice at the 160.8 kilometer of the North-South Expressway near Jawi interchange at Nibong Tebal, Penang before landing upside down in a ditch.

• The 2007 Bukit Gantang bus crash was the worst road accident in Malaysia history. 22 passengers of the Super Express bus were killed in the accident which took place near Bukit Berapit, Bukit Gantang, Changkat Jering, Perak. It occurred on August 13, 2007 at 4.40 am, when the bus driver, Rohizan Abu Bakar, lost control of the bus as it was going down an incline and it crashed into a ditch at the 229th kilometre of the North-South Expressway. Rohizan, 38, died, along with 19 passengers. Police disclosed that the driver had two arrest warrants and 13 summonses against him, and his driving record was a factor being investigated in trying to determine the cause of the crash.

• The 2009 Perak bus crash was an accident that happened on December 26, 2009 at 1.23 am on a Sani Express bus which carried 48 people. The incident happened when the bus was heading from Klang to Kangar skidded and crashed into the divider of Malaysia’s North-South Expressway which resulted in10 passengers being killed. The driver of the bus, Mohamed Kamil Mohamed Rashid (37) has been charged with reckless driving only.

• The 2010 Simpang Ampat Crash took place on the so called auspicious date of 10.10.10. Thirteen people were killed and more than 50 others injured in a highway crash involving two buses, three cars and a van at Km 223 of the North-South Expressway, near the Simpang Ampat Interchange, Negeri Sembilan.

• The 2010 Genting Sempah accident on 29 October 2010 saw seven people killed injuring 39 others. Two were seriously injured including one whose both legs had to be amputated. The victims were between 13-28 years old. Six of them died at the scene while the other, a religious teacher and entourage leader Mohd Zaidi Mohd Sufian, 28, died on the way to the Selayang Hospital.

• The 2010 Pekan accident. One passenger died while four were injured when an express bus plunged into an irrigation canal at KM 20 Jalan Pekan-Nenasi near Sungai Miang on the 3 November this year.