The Public Land Transport Commission (Spad) is developing a system that will provide background information on public transport drivers, including their criminal record, if available.

Spad chairperson Syed Hamid Albar said the ‘Driver Information System’ would be based on information supplied to the commission and would be accessible to the public transport operators and its customers once it was completed.

“We hope we will be able to coordinate with the Road Transport Department (RTD) and the police so that we can do a complete check up. We still need to get information from the police in terms of criminal record.

“We need to look into privacy issues and information sharing but technically, the system is there already,” he told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Saying that he was confident the system would be available online by the first quarter of next year, Syed Hamid said under the current practice, public transport operators only relied on interviews to gather background information on their drivers.

“We want to be more transparent so that the people will have no fear. Can check the bus and taxi drivers. Our most important consideration is we don’t want to compromise privacy or endanger safety or security. This is important,” he added.

Syed Hamid was earlier asked whether the commission had information about the bus driver involved in the mishap at Genting Highlands recently.

He said the commission was informed by the police that the driver had committed a number of offences previously, but did not elaborate further.

Syed Hamid said a panel of inquiry would be established once the preliminary report of the accident had been prepared by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros).     

The panel, to be spearheaded by Spad, will include people from the RTD, police, Miros and experts in areas of road and public transport to investigate the accident.

“It is better for us not to pin point culpability. Let’s see all reports first to take appropriate action. This (Genting Highlands) is an important area, not only locals but foreign tourists also go there. We need to get more details, how and why the incident happened,” he said.

He also highlighted that the bus involved in the mishap had undergone a check with Puspakom for road worthiness in May and was given a ‘clean bill of health’.

Saying that there was much more to be done to improve public transportation, Syed Hamid said the commission would once again engage with the operators to see the state of care that they must take in recruiting people.

In the incident at 2.22pm Wednesday, 37 passengers were killed while 16 were injured after a bus travelling from Genting Highlands plunged into a 60-metre deep ravine at Km3.5 Jalan Genting Highlands.

- Bernama

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