Safety, improvement of East-West Highway to be brought to cabinet
GEORGE TOWN: The Transport Ministry will raise safety issues and discuss immediate measures that can be taken to improve the East-West Highway (JRTB) at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said his ministry would also work with several other ministries to investigate and take immediate steps for improvements on the route, due to bus tragedy that claimed 15 lives yesterday.
'In terms of road safety (including at JRTB), we are taking it seriously and we need to work together with various other ministries, and I will raise the matter in the Cabinet Meeting tomorrow morning so that we can see what immediate steps can be taken to improve it.
'In particular, the safety issue at JRTB is something that is of concern to us, the first of which is not only the roadblocks but also in terms of the road conditions and also the lack of street lights at night,' he told reporters after opening CruiseWorld Malaysia 2025 here today.
Yesterday, the nation was shocked by the accident that claimed the lives of 15 students of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) when a chartered bus from Jertih, Terengganu to Tanjung Malim, Perak overturned after being involved in an accident with a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) on Jalan Raya Timur-Barat near Tasik Banding, Gerik.
Regarding the condition of the road infrastructure on the route involved in the accident, especially regarding the iron roadblocks which are said to be quite old, he said The government has taken note of the roadblock and lighting aspects, so the Ministry of Transport will install solar street lights to overcome the lighting problem at night on the route.
''In terms of specifications and further actions regarding roadblocks, that is under the Ministry of Works, but the road safety aspect requires cooperation between various ministries,'' he said.
Commenting further, Loke said he himself would visit the accident site involving a bus carrying UPSI students on Thursday with the relevant parties to assess the situation and the need for immediate action personally.
He said the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) and the Road Transport Department (RTD) were conducting a detailed investigation into the accident while the Land Public Transport Agency (APAD) had issued a show cause letter to the bus company involved, in addition to requesting Global Positioning System (GPS) records to determine whether the bus was speeding during the incident.
''When an accident occurs, the police will conduct a detailed investigation in terms of criminal elements, while the RTD will look at technical matters and also a safety audit of the company and that is what we did yesterday at the location incident.
''We need various information, especially the RTD report and also the GPS record of the bus. We want to know whether it was speeding or not, we will also conduct an audit of the company including the background of the bus driver,'' he said.
Loke also explained that his ministry refused to draw any early conclusions and left it entirely to the police and RTD to complete the investigation in detail and fairly.
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