KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Public Transport Users Association (4PAM) has once again called for the establishment of a public transport users commission for the safety and protection of commuters.
Its president Ajit Johl said there was no authority in charge of the rights of public transport users in the country, ensuring justice for those who meet with accidents or incidents.
"We no longer have the Malaysian Aviation Commission that has merged with the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia. The Land Public Transport Commission has been transformed into an agency within the Transport Ministry.
"Not one body is looking out for the safety, protection, awareness, and rights of public transport users. This is completely unfair and unjust," he told the New Straits Times today.
He was responding to a case where a man was electrocuted after attempting to plug his phone to charge while on an express bus in Penang Sentral.
In response, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the Land Public Transport Agency had suspended the express bus operator and formed a task force to look into the matter.
Ajit however said the ministry had established other committees to look into incidents in the past, but had not come up with any solutions to address safety concerns.
"What do committees do besides making a report on the incident? Where is the justice for the public transport user? What kind of compensation will be made available?
"The last major public transport incident was the 2021 LRT (light rail transit) collision. What was the compensation given to them?
"Our (public transport) industry is at a growth and a trajectory, we no longer can afford to have such incidences merely being investigated by committees without proper sound outcomes."
Ajit also said added that the express bus operator involved needed to be taken to tasked and be slapped with severe penalties to ensure the incident did not recur.
"Public transport companies need to be held accountable, as they are in charge of bringing lives. This case of a man being electrocuted is an isolated one, but it could have been more," he added.
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 man died from electrocution.