Parliament will debate bus crash…SPAD twiddles thumbs until next year (Update #1)

TRANSIT notes a major first in Malaysia – that the Malaysian Parliament will hold an emergency debate about the recent bus crash that killed 7 youths and injured 39 others.

Interestingly enough, a recent motion from the same MP to debate the recent bus crash at Simpang Ampat was rejected by Parliament – leaving TRANSIT to wonder why the deaths and injuries of some Malaysians as a result of carelessness, recklessness and negligence are somehow less important than that of others.

Parliament allows motion to debate on bus accident (The Star)
By LEE YUK PENG
Wednesday November 3, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR: The Dewan Rakyat has allowed an emergency motion to debate on the recent bus accident in Genting Sempah, which claimed seven lives and left 39 injured.

Deputy Speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee said he was satisfied that the motion filed by Er Teck Hwa (DAP-Bakri) fulfilled the criteria set for the emergency motion.

“The matter is a specific issue of public interest and urgent,” he said Wednesday when allowing Er’s application.

TRANSIT: What about the last bus crash and every other one before it? Not in the public interest?

The house will debate the matter at 4.30pm and the Government will reply at 5pm.

In his application filed on Monday, Er said he had filed a similar application on Oct 14 to debate on the frequency of express bus accidents, citing the Simpang Ampat crash which claimed 12 lives.

His first application was rejected in chambers on Oct 18.

Unfortunately, Er said, less than two weeks after his application was rejected, another fatal road accident took place and this time seven youths were killed.

“The explanation given by the Government has failed to ease the anxiety of people as road accidents involving express buses are rampant,” he said.

Er also proposed a Royal Commission be set up to investigate the two road accidents.

TRANSIT Says:

We are pleased to hear that a bus crash will finally be debated in Parliament. We only wonder why it has taken so long for these problems to come to the attention of Parliament and to be taken on by Parliament.

If you think the creation of SPAD was enough to resolve the problems related to public transport in Malaysia you would be wrong – and it gets worse simply because SPAD cannot “legally” take action yet – so while they wait for the legal niceties to be worked out, more and more Malaysians face continuous risks when using public transport.

SPAD to take over probe into crashes (NST)
4 November 2010

KUALA LUMPUR: From next year, the Land and Public Transport Commission (SPAD) will coordinate investigations of bus and train accidents, taking over the function from the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) .

The commission’s chairman, Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, said a bill paving for this would be tabled in Parliament next month.

TRANSIT: That Bill to amend the Road Transport Act 1987 was actually tabled in April 2010 but withdrawn because other amendments to the Road Transport Act were not welcomed in Parliament. The MP responsible for withdrawing the Bill was Nazri Abdul Aziz, the Minister who all but proclaimed himself as being in charge of SPAD.

“Once Parliament has approved our motion, and the Land and Public Transport Act 2010 comes into effect, the SPAD would be coordinating all investigations relating to land public transportation.”

The duties of the CVLB would also be taken over by the commission, he added.

TRANSIT: We want to know what SPAD is doing now.

During a visit to the electric train services (ETS) facility linking Kuala Lumpur and Batu Gajah yesterday, he said that the CVLB was overseeing the probe of the two recent bus accidents with the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research conducting the technical investigation, assisted by the police.

More than 20 people were killed in the accidents involving buses in Genting Sempah and the North South Expressway last month.

“We are hoping to assume the overall task of coordinating the investigations as early as January next year,” he said as he embarked on a journey on the inter-city speed train which departed from the Kuala Lumpur Train Station, reaching Batu Gajah in Perak in just two hours.

However, he said, the commission would not intervene with on-going investigations as the matter was still under the jurisdiction of the CVLB.

TRANSIT Says:

This is not just unfair, but it is also wrong – and while SPAD is not responsible for the political decision to withdraw the Amendment to the Road Transport Act from Parliament (which was made by Nazri Abdul Aziz who had called for himself to be put in charge of SPAD), SPAD is responsible for not taking action to warn bus operators and bus drivers that they had a window of opportunity to shape up before SPAD came down hard on them in early 2011.

SPAD should remember that important phrase, to “speak softly and carry a big stick.”

Oh and by the way, we checked out the LPKP / CVLB website recently for updates on enforcement and complaints, and the Safety, Health & Environment Guidelines (not regulations, apparently).

As you can see everything is “under maintenance”. How is this considered acceptable?