Six people were killed in an accident along the North-South Expressway near Rawang this morning.

The six were five passengers and the driver of an express bus. Two other passengers were injured in the crash.

The accident occurred at about 5.30am when the bus went out of control and skidded. It then hit the divider and overturned at Km443 of the highway.

The double-decker carried 34 passengers from Changlun, Kedah.

The accident cause a massive traffic jam along the highway in the morning.

According to a Bernama report, the dead were Muhamad Ismail, 27, of Kampung Lubuk Batu, Jitra; Mohamad Fauzi Awang, 57, Kampung Siam, Alor Star; Md Jaheer Mohamad, 33, Kodiang; Mohd Yusril Zakaria, 27, Kuala Muda, Kedah, C Magentharan, 26, Kelang, and bus driver Zulkhibri Md Saad, 35, of Kubang Ulu, Bukit Mertajam.

All the dead and the injured were sent to the Sungai Buloh Hospital.

Crashes involving express buses

This is not the first time such horrific crashes involving buses have occurred.

Two years ago, 22 people were killed when a passenger bus in Perak overturned, also in North-South Expressway.

MCPX

The driver of the bus apparently lost control of the vehicle which skidded before overturning near a village at Km229 of the highway in Bukit Gantang.

Nineteen people, including the bus driver, died on the spot while three died later in Taiping hospital.

The driver of the bus in what was considered the country's worst road accident was later found to have two outstanding arrest warrants for reckless driving.

It was not clear why he had managed to evade arrest or how he was hired by the operator of the express bus despite his record.