Thurs 12.6.2025.
Only after 4 days after the tragedy could I find time to post this sad blog. It's something I must do, before all this disappears under the pile of stories through time. Grave lessons must be learned. All remedial actions should be put in place. The Law must be enforced. The lives lost cannot be regained; but morale uplifting can, and sadness placated. And certainly material compensation must be legally sorted out.
15 young university students ( probably almost half of the bus total passengers ) had their precious lives horribly cut short when the bus, driven in the unearthly hours of the morning, crashed with another vehicle on the notorious East-West highway up north of the Peninsula.
15 bright futures were erased. 15 future great educators were lost. 15 dreams of doting parents were destroyed. And how many siblings, relatives and friends will forever hang on to only memories of the dear departed, cruelly wrenched from their lives in circumstances open to scrutiny, demanding open scrutiny.
I have driven on this highway before. I know the dangers lurking at every tortious turn. There have been too many road tragedies here. The authorities must make absolutely serious effort at addressing this as the no. 1 action from Monday's horror. Basic necessities like well-marked road borders with luminous paints, street lights (solar-powered or whatever), and many lay-byes for frequent rest of tired bodies immediately come to mind.
I can relate with UPSI, the university concerned. My late father taught there in 1951 to 1956 when it was just SITC. A niece did her Masters there where it was already UPSI.
The second action should be strict enforcement of passenger-vehicles road worthiness. Regular tests are already in place, but poor enforcement, a sad Malaysian reality that I have written about many times, makes the real difference, and in this case, tragically, of life and death. If found true, the failure of the operators must be punished accordingly, and punished fully.
The third action should be strict enforcement of qualified drivers for passenger-vehicles like buses. And "qualified" here must include the state of health at the time of work. The driving licenses can be easily checked, the health test conducted. The owners cannot escape the responsibility of employing only qualified and safe drivers.
The fourth action should be the full legal action against the bus operators for compensation of loss of lives and limbs, and of properties ascertained. All due compensations under the law must be awarded to the beneficiaries, and similarly all punishments served on the preparators.
No finger-pointing here. Just stating the facts. Mostly ruing the precious young lives that were unnecessarily lost.
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