PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will build a database of bus drivers to weed out errant ones, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on Wednesday (Jun 11) as he announced the authorities would revoke the permit and licence of the bus operator involved in Monday’s Perak crash that killed 15 university students.
His comments came a day after another accident in Pahang involving a bus ferrying university students, though no injuries were reported.
The database of all bus drivers providing public transportation will enable individuals with “previous records” to be blacklisted, Loke said at a media briefing.
This will help bus operators avoid hiring errant drivers who might have been sacked from another company for poor driving, Loke said.
“Because now in our system, we don’t have a database that consolidates all these drivers; we only have licensing (information),” the minister said.
“So in this system, errant drivers that did not drive responsibly could have been fired from company A, they could go to company B.”
Giving an update on the Perak crash, Loke said the bus company involved, Kenari Utara Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd, did not operate the bus that had crashed into the back of a Perodua Alza multi-purpose vehicle.
It had instead leased the vehicle to a third party from Kelantan for RM500 (US$118) a month, which “goes against the rules of vehicle permits”.
The global positioning system (GPS) of the bus was also not activated, resulting in GPS records not being able to be handed over for investigations, the minister said.
“These are two major conditions that (the company has) broken, and I have instructed (the Land Public Transport Commission) to revoke this company’s permit immediately after the period of the show-cause letter ends,” he said, adding that the company holds a tourist bus permit.
“They have other buses, and we will revoke all their permits and operator’s licence immediately without any avenue for appeal … this shows a carelessness that cannot be forgiven.”
