If you haven’t heard of this, Jolene and her friends have recently started a blog — Bus Crash No More — to increase and spread the awareness on fatal bus crashes and they are also in the middle of collecting signatures for a petitione which will be forwarded to the Ministry of Transport, Malaysia.
A little bit of background information for the benefit of my foreign blogger friends/readers/visitors:
Two people died and three were seriously injured after the double-decker express bus they were travelling in lost control before crashing into a divider at southbound of Km382 of the North-South Expressway between Slim River and Behrang.
The two dead were identified as Mohd Zailini Mustafa, 23, and Lee Nian Ning, 21. Both are from Sg Nibong and Taman Bukit Gelugor, Penang, respectively.
- Source: The Star, 26 January 2008
And to add salt to injury, this wasn’t the first fatal bus crash in that happened in Malaysia. in fact, in August 2007, the country’s worst bus crash claimed the lives of 22 passengers, out of which 20 died instantly while nine others were seriously injured after the bus they were traveling in crashed into a ditch (Source: The Star, 19 August 2007).
Other past tragedies involving buses were compiled and published in The Star, 14 August 2007:
July 31, 2006
Twelve pilgrims on the way to St Anne’s Feast were killed when a chartered bus crashed at the 160th kilometre of the North-South Expressway near Nibong Tebal. Thirty-five others were injured.
Dec 1, 2003
Fourteen passengers were killed in an early morning collision involving two buses – a school bus which was converted for commercial use and an express bus – at the 63rd kilometre of the Kuala Lipis-Merapoh trunk road. Twenty-three others were injured.
April 21, 2001
Twelve women and a boy were killed when a bus skidded and crashed into a ditch off the Pengkalan Hulu-Baling road near Baling.
Jan 15, 2001
Nine people were killed and five seriously injured when an express bus and a trailer lorry collided head-on at the 24th kilometre of the Sarikei-Sibu road during heavy rain.
Dec 22, 1999
A Mutiara express bus caught fire after plunging into a ravine at Kampung Bayu in Paloh, near Gua Musang killing three passengers and injuring eight.
July 16, 1996
A bus, ferrying a group of factory workers and their families on a holiday excursion, plunged into a 120m-deep ravine near the Genting Highlands Resort, killing 17 of them. Six were children.
- Source: The Star, 14 August 2007
What Jolene and her friends are trying to do is to gather as many signatures as possible after which they will present to the Ministry of Transport so that the necessary actions can be taken. Please CLICK HERE to sign the petition. It takes only a minute.
If you think this post might benefit other bloggers:
Signed.
Pelfy’s latest blog post: Photo hunt - Red
hey..thanks for putting it up:)
Jayelle’s latest blog post: The Petition Is Up. May Nian Ning’s, Mohd Zailani’s and Pang Poon Eng’s Demise Be The Reason For Change.
For those of you who aren’t aware of how SERIOUS this problem in Malaysia, I’m going to post what I wrote a while back.
http://www.goldfries.com/inperson/nation/malaysias-quota-of-broken-hearts/
Pardon me for having to put the link here Pelf. The post was title “Malaysia’s Quota of Broken Hearts”. Why? It’s as if there is a quota to be achieved.
If only our Government officers are stringent enough to stay away bribes and corruption, I’m sure we’ll have less such cases of unlicensed or unfit people to ferry others around.
I felt sad as I wrote the post on the boat incident. A personal friend’s girlfriend lost a brother there. Her brother’s girlfriend’s parented died along in the watery grave.
Whether bus crash or boat problem - this should not be a BUS only matter. I’ve done my part to write about it and I hope others will.
Pelf, perhaps you would want to have a collection of unhappy voices about the appalling state of how our Transport Ministry handles things?
goldfries’s latest blog post: Corner Placed Highlights
Signed as well.
May the petition succeed in its cause. This is indeed a priceless effort
littlebro’s latest blog post: f e e l i n g s ‘ . . . p o e m
We have had several bus accidents as well in Canada and also in the US… a tragedy each time.
Zhu’s latest blog post: Snowy Scarves
signed and blogged.
you can shoot me for getting your name incorrectly. sorry ! so much for a royal reader of your blog =(
gong xi fa cai …
I haven’t been to Malaysia yet but visited other countries in Asia and they all have a problem with reckless driving, well the roads conditions are not very good, the buses are often old and not treated properly on a regular basis. I hope that your situation is better but if other Asian states are an indication then there is no surprise there are so many bus accidents
very conscientious blog entry with regard to the staggering rates of accidents in Malaysia.
I was on a bus to UPM, Serdang in August last year. The engine of this road-unworthy vehicle kept whining fearfully along the ride. Five minutes before reaching my destination, the air-conditioner stopped functioning out of the blue and an acrid exhaust-like smell began to fill the entire coach. It became so overpowering at one stage that I thought the bus may catch fire. Fortunately nothing happened. Alighting that bus was like an escape from HELL.
There was also a time when the bus I was on accidentally hit the wing mirror of a van. To my horror the bus driver still drove on.
ya I am going to do that. Really i pity. Just going to sing the petetion. May this not happen in future.
Let’s not forget that it’s not just people inside the transport that are in danger, people out side along whichever route they take are at risk too.
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