KUALA LUMPUR: The Transport Ministry, through the Land Public Transport Agency (APAD), has suspended the operations of an express bus company after a man died while charging his phone while on board.
Its minister Anthony Loke said the company involved had been suspended immediately for further investigation by the Road Transport Department (RTD).
"The Transport Ministry takes the incident that resulted in the death of a teenager very seriously.
"A special task force consisting the JPJ, APAD, and the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research will be activated to investigate the cause of the incident to ensure that such incidents do not recur and that passenger safety is always guaranteed.
"I would like to express my condolences to the victim's family," he said in a statement posted on Facebook, today.
The deceased, identified as Mohamad Nur Asymawi Jasmadi, 18, was on an express bus at the Penang Sentral bus terminal Friday evening.
The bus was scheduled to depart for Kuala Lumpur Sentral.
Seberang Prai Utara police chief Assistant Commissioner Anuar Abdul Rahman said police were alerted about the incident at 7.40pm.
He said initial investigations revealed burn marks on the youth's left fingers, believed to have resulted from electrocution while charging his cellphone using the socket on the bus.
He added that the end of the charging cable had melted and the phone overheated. The post-mortem report revealed the youth died from electrocution.