Odin Tajué: In my neck of the woods, many of our roads are narrow and winding, as the land is mountainous. There are ravines, too, of course. They are so steep and go deep that were a bus plunged down any of them and landed at the bottom, it would surely end up as a mass of tangled steel and the humans aboard all broken and torn apart. But bus accidents very, very rarely happen. The bus drivers are paid salaries, not commissions. The fares could not be excessive, as the buses are used by the ordinary people, and as far as I can remember, there has been no hue and cry raised over the amounts charged. The buses are comfortable, too. Many people prefer to take them rather than fly when going on a long trip. But in your neck of the woods, bus accidents seem a common affair. Obviously, many things are wrong. And, obviously, you all are incapable of resolving the issues. So, maybe it is a good idea for you to seek the expert recommendations of consultants from foreign lands where the bus service is good. ‘Consultants’ and not ‘con–sultants’. Meaning, no inflating of their fees so that some of you can pocket the difference. Just saying. Hearty Malaysian: It is enforcement that is lacking. In Europe, no bus driver is allowed to drive after eight hours of work, inclusive of a compulsory short rest every two hours of driving. Spad (Land Public Transport Commission) is a complete failure in enforcing the rules, so how can one guarantee the bus companies pay the drivers well enough with bus fare increase? Telestai!: Every public bus that plies the road needs a licence and it is allegedly sold by ruling politicians. After paying for the licence, the operators need to cut corners to cover the cost of the licence and to be profitable. Cutting drivers’ pay and reducing maintenance are two common areas and both point to accidents. To slash the rate of accidents, just stop selling the bus licences and go down hard on operators in areas such as drivers’ welfare, maintenance and the operating standard. Simple. Trueglitter: Syed Hamid Syed Albar, resorting to playing the blame game will not only expose your incomprehension of the dangers with further losses of lives which bus companies would be responsible for, but also the absurdity of your idiotic suggestion that the increment of bus drivers’ salaries will be a preventive measure to rid future crashes. As Spad chief you have made a mockery of the highly regarded position and responsibility that you are involved in instead of making lame excuses to circumvent the death-preventing issue that afflicts our travelling passengers on the highways. Instead of blaming insufficient payments of salaries for bus drivers as the sole cause for such an accident, it is time that you emerge from the closed comforts of your posh air-conditioned room and conduct a proactive administrative plan with all bus companies to hatch the appropriate rostering for their drivers to ensure their compliance to the amount of hours on the roads. Victor Johan: Bus drivers are compelled to inform the management if they are unable to do the job at hand – this will never happen, as the drivers make money whenever they drive the bus. When they don’t, there is no money. Passengers can remind or reprimand the drivers for dangerous driving – great idea, but how can they remind or reprimand these reckless and stubborn bus drivers? It should be made compulsory for the bus company to have stickers with telephone contacts of “who to complain to” pasted within the bus, and on the tickets of the passengers. Clear large print of these contact numbers should also be on the outside and back of the buses. The passengers in these public vehicles and other drivers of vehicles on the roads and highways should be empowered to lodge complaints with the concerned bus company and the relevant authorities. Only then, drivers of public vehicles and commercial lorries would adhere to the rules. Worldly Wise: Quite true. Well-paid drivers will be less likely to be careless. The road transport authorities must inspect vehicles properly before letting them on the road. Road hogging, that is, vehicles driving at low speeds in highways, cause accidents when other vehicles try to overtake them. Drug testing and drunken driving can be checked too. Motorcycles should be prohibited on 90kph and 110kph highways. 6th Generation Immigrant: Spad must surely be running out of ideas. The truth is our government lacks the political will to implement and enforce all forms of safety regulations. The government backtracks and agrees to compromise most of the time after political (usually bumiputera) demands. A good example is our taxi system. Uber and GrabTaxi, with safety and quality as part of their coded practices, are indirectly sorting out this bad example when the government could not. Each time vehicle speed monitoring systems or limiters are proposed, the bus or lorry associations plead and appeal, the government then relents and submits. If our government introduces and enforces all international health, safety and environmental codes into our regulations, the safety of passengers and buses shall be ensured. The way to go to improve quality, not higher salaries. Anonymous 29051438068738: There are so many technologies to curb speeding other than the imposition of crippling fines and suspension of driving and operating licences which transportation authorities in non-Islamic countries use with amazing results. For example, the buses that ply between Sydney and Canberra over three hours several times a day are equipped with speed tracking devices which relay data in real time to bases stations. Each is manned by a single, trained, uniformed driver who also loads and unloads bags; all passengers are required to be seated and belted, no music is played on board, while “average speed” cameras between specific points detect and report information. I have not heard of a single mishap over the last 10 years. And yes, none of the politicians from either the ruling Coalition or Labor have shares in Murrays Express Coaches. Which is why the rules of the road and of the law apply every day. Baffled: Stupidity is the staple of Malaysian politicians. If you have bad drivers who get corrupt-based bus licenses, if offenders are not penalised and held seriously accountable, if bus companies are not frequently monitored and if government policy does not favour and correct badly run, badly-managed companies who are given preferential licences and not take those to account, then price rises only make it more expansive for the consumer and the system will continue to rip consumer off. Ib: Syed Hamid is the regulator, so who is he telling? His boss, PM Najib Razak? What do we need ministers for if they cannot do their job? I say vote them out. JusticeNow!: Corruption exposed, punish the whistleblower; economy mismanaged badly, punish the rakyat with GST; crime rate increased, change the victim perception of crime; bus accident, punish the passengers with higher bus fares.

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