LETTER | On Oct 24, a tour bus on the way from Penang to Cameron Highlands crashed into the rear of a trailer lorry at KM230 of the North-South Expressway, injuring the bus driver, a tour guide and all 11 Japanese tourists onboard.

The victims were treated at hospitals in Taiping and Kuala Kangsar. Sadly, a 73-year-old woman succumbed to her chest and abdominal injuries and died the next day. In Tokyo, Japan Travel Bureau (JTB) President and CEO Eijiro Yamakita made a public apology in a press conference.

Recently, while attending the Tourism Resilience Summit at Sendai in Japan, Tourism, Culture and Arts Minister Tiong King Sing met Naoto Ashibe, director of Nankai Electric Railway, to personally apologise for the bus accident involving Japanese tourists in Malaysia.

Concerned over the lack of safety in tour bus operations in our country, both Nankai Electric Railway and JTB, the biggest travel agency in Japan and one of the largest in the world, have temporarily suspended tour packages to Malaysia.

(Editor’s note: Tiong’s office later clarified that Nankai was not involved in the tour packages.)

Nankai was also planning to promote Malaysian tourism during the upcoming World Expo 2025 at Osaka and along routes to Tokyo's Narita and Haneda International Airports to help drum up the Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign. World Expos are held every five years in different countries.

It was reported that both Tiong and Ashibe discussed measures to ensure bus safety such as requiring two drivers for trips exceeding eight hours, conducting alcohol and drug testing for drivers before shifts, and monitoring drivers while driving by using in-cabin video cameras.

They also suggested limiting driving hours, enforcing the use of seat belts, and operating tour buses of lower heights to improve stability and safety. Tiong said he would engage with the Transport Ministry, as the regulation of tour buses falls outside his ministry's jurisdiction.

Tour bus permits are issued and renewed by his ministry in Sabah and Sarawak, and the Land Public Transport Agency (Apad) in peninsular Malaysia. Those procuring a new bus will have to choose the make and model of the chassis, and the bus body design from a coachbuilder.

The coachbuilder would have drawn up the bus body plan and obtained approval from the Road Transport Department. After the bus is built, it will be sent for initial inspection and the vehicle examiner will match the plan's specifications and design with what he can see and measure.

High-deck buses

For more than 40 years, local tour bus operators have opted for high-deck buses and sometimes double-deckers, as taller buses look more imposing, much like a lady in stilettos or high heels but lack stability and could easily twist and fall, especially at high speeds or bends.

Just after a double-decker tour bus had crashed while going downhill at Cameron Highlands in December 2010 killing 27 passengers, I wrote "Road Transport: High price of beauty" and called for double-decker buses to be limited to city roads, not on highways and mountainous roads.

After double-decker buses were banned from travelling to Genting Highlands, Cameron Highlands, Bukit Tinggi, Fraser's Hill, Bukit Larut and Gunung Jerai in 2014, they were no longer in vogue among tour and express bus operators and settled for high-deck buses with lower roofs.

From 1973 to 1992, I worked for a tour company that operated the largest fleet of tour buses at that time. All of them were low-deck and solidly built in Japan and none were involved in any collision. Using air suspension, they were more comfortable than the buses running about today.

Apart from airport transfers and sightseeing tours, they were often used on winding mountainous roads to Genting and Cameron Highlands, and along the old trunk roads to Singapore, Penang, and Hat Yai, long before the North-South Expressway was fully completed in 1994.

In 2016, I wrote: "There is no shortage of lawmakers and laws in our country, and the same goes for road safety experts, rules, regulations and guidelines. Likewise, there is no shortage of lawbreakers and people bending rules as enforcement is lacking and apathy reigns."

I pointed out that the Spad Industrial Code of Practice Safety Programme for buses was established in 2012. The maximum time for non-stop driving was set at four hours with a 30-minute break in between.

Earlier, in 2010, the Occupational Safety and Health Department stated in its Occupational Safety and Health Industry Code of Practice for road transport activities that there must be a minimum of 12 hours of rest before a driver begins a journey.

Safety proposal

I proposed that express and tour buses be fitted with in-cabin cameras that can relay video back to the bus companies’ offices for real-time monitoring. If the camera shows the driver getting sleepy, the control centre can remotely activate a buzzer to alert him.

This kind of monitoring will also deter drivers from using their handphones for texting or prolonged conversations, which is a common practice among long-distance bus drivers. So far, I have covered most of what was discussed between Tiong and Ashibe except for the one below.

That is conducting alcohol and drug testing for drivers before shifts, which may be a norm in Japan and other developed countries but alien to Malaysia and other developing countries. It will be a great challenge just to test express bus drivers at bus stations where they converge.

But pickup points for tour buses can be anywhere except bus stations which they must avoid or be suspected of running illegal express bus service. Unlike the tour company where I worked for 19 years with our garage, tour bus companies in Malaysia are more like roadside operators.

This is because the buses are parked by the roadside overnight while in town or outstation and sent for servicing or repairs at an appointed workshop, much like private cars and similarly their conditions could vary greatly according to the diligence of individual drivers and companies.

In summary, a systematic line of action is necessary to control this laissez-faire approach in tour bus operations. Nothing short of a paradigm shift is needed to transform the mindsets of drivers, operators and regulators to reach an acceptable level of tour bus safety in our country.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.