SIBU: The government has been urged to hasten the decision to impose wearing of seat belts for bus passengers to enhance the safety feature of buses.
According to Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, this requirement has not been enforced yet.
He also suggested that there must be competent and professional bus drivers to look after the safety of passengers.
Lee made the call in the wake of latest bus tragedy, where 14 people died and 16 more injured when the express bus they were travelling in plunged into a ravine and crashed into the concrete wall of an underpass at Kampung Jayor, KM137.3 of the North-South Expressway, near the Pagoh R&R area.
“The (installing) seat belts has been discussed before but the requirement for bus passengers to wear seat belts has not been enforced yet…I think in view of this latest bus tragedy, maybe the government needs to hasten this decision to impose safety belts for passengers.
“Of course, the bus companies have to be responsible because they are the ones who have to give their support and cooperation. With the seat belt, at least, passengers will not fall off in event of an emergency. I feel it must be done as soon as possible,” Lee told The Borneo Post when contacted yesterday.
Touching on bus drivers, he noted this was becoming an issue in the country.
He pointed out that tour and express buses must have competent and professional drivers.
“This means that these drivers must be trained to carry out their task,” Lee said, while noting that there were not very many truly professional drivers because they are also in demand these days.
Sometimes, certain (bus) companies just bypass their principle and want to get somebody the job, he said. “There is a need to have a centre to train future drivers to make sure that
whoever the driver is, he must not sacrifice safety and comply with all the laws. There is a need for competent and professional drivers in our country to look after the safety of passengers,” he stressed.
Lee also mentioned that it was important that whatever safety announcements made, they need to be implemented. “Otherwise, we will forever be talking about it and no action being taken. There is a need for the government to ensure whatever announcement they made in the past to reduce accidents, they must be able to implement it. At the end of the day, what is important is the implementation of these measures,” he said.
Lee said this when asked if installing seatbelts in the passenger seats of express buses should be enforced to reduce the risk of death in accidents.
Bernama had reported Road Transport Department (RTD) director Datuk Seri Nadzri Siron, as saying the move required detailed study in the effort to improve the safety of express buses.
Nadzri reportedly said he welcomed the suggestion that the use of seatbelts be enforced in express buses as it is among the best measures to reduce loss of lives, adding that he would discuss this within the RTD as seatbelts in the passenger seats of express buses would improve the safety system.
Nadzri was commenting on a news analysis on bus accidents written by Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) chairman Datuk Seri Azman Ujang recently, saying that there should be preventive measures such as disallowing the drivers to make trips during the ‘sleepy hours’, and making seatbelts for passengers compulsory.
Nadzri also reportedly said that although the government had not yet made passenger seatbelts compulsory, bus operators could take the initiative of providing them for the public.