ANOTHER express bus has crashed (”Army man dies as speeding bus crashes into railing” — NST, April 9).

In the wake of that, I wasn’t surprised (I’m sure many Malaysians weren’t, too) because the bus company had been issued with 52 summonses, mostly for speeding, between 2004 and February this year.

I wonder what happened to the summonses. Did the company or the driver(s) involved settle them?

Without commenting or lamenting about things that people have done, I simply want to suggest to Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat that this is an area he should definitely look into.

The government should perhaps implement some of the many suggestions made by the public to reduce the number of bus accidents.

I would like to suggest some of the good ones that I have heard:

- Have tougher laws on hiring bus drivers. A less-complicated method based on the aviation industry is worth looking into, where the performance of both vehicle and operator is constantly and closely monitored.

- Install speed limiters on buses. After all, the sticker at the back of all commercial vehicles clearly states 80kph on normal roads and 90kph on expressways. Don’t involve the taxpayers. Make it compulsory for the bus companies to pay for them.

- For once, just create a governing body to supervise safety in commercial vehicles, which include express buses, taxis, airport limousines, feeder buses, tour buses, schoolbuses, factory buses, transit and inter-city trains.

The body should cover everything about the vehicles and their operators except fares, staff uniforms, routes, ticket counter service and the problem of touts.

In other words, let’s have a Department of Commercial Land Vehicle Safety.

Over the years, I have read that the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB) “will be restructured and beefed up” to enable it to play a more effective role.

The Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board Act 1987 would be amended to turn the board into a statutory body with its own administrative structure and the power to make decisions.

Such a move was due to the CVLB’s powers being “too limited” and “overdependent” on other government departments, especially the Road Transport Department, to enforce rules.

The New Straits Times on Aug 27 last year published a report stating that a “database” of bus drivers would be created by the Entrepreneur and Co-operative Development Ministry.

It would contain the health profile of bus drivers and number of traffic summonses received.

The article also quoted the then minister as saying that this would help the ministry book errant drivers and ensure that only those who are fit, courteous and responsible get to drive buses.

Over the years, politicians, experts, authorities and many others have spoken on “beefing up” and “restructuring” the CVLB, installing “black boxes” and creating databases, task forces, reports and what-have-you.

But nothing has improved.

I’m sure there are still many express buses with 52 or more summonses out on the roads, with our loved ones inside.

Have we covered all areas to minimise a recurrence of last year’s August express bus tragedy, which took the lives of 21 passengers?

I say we still haven’t.

AZLAN RAMLI, Petaling Jaya

Source: NST – April 14, 2008