KUALA LUMPUR: The decision to suspend operations for the express bus involved in an electric shock case is too harsh, said a bus association.
Peninsular Malaysia Malay Express Bus Operators Association (Pembawa) president Datuk Abu Hassan Awang said the authorities should conduct an investigation to determine the cause of the electric shock before deciding on suspension.
"They should conduct an investigation to examine the bus design, components used, inventory and placement of switches.
"Once we identify where the issue lies and determine whether it was indeed the bus switch that caused the fatality, only then should a suspension be considered," he told 'Berita Harian' today.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced the formation of a taskforce and the suspension of the bus' operations today.
Loke said the taskforce would include the Road Transport Department, the Land Public Transport Agency, and the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research.
Abu said these incidents were unpredictable, and people should not entirely fault bus operators, as the cause of the incident remained unknown.
He added that the electric shock could have been caused by a faulty socket installation or the charger the victim was using.
"We never anticipated something like this would happen.
"However, under my company's management, we remind drivers to monitor the bus environment to prevent any unwanted incidents.
"For instance, drivers remind passengers not to use certain sockets to charge laptops and to avoid placing laptops on seats due to the high voltage used.
"The company also monitors bus conditions. If any passenger is disobedient, we instruct the driver to issue warnings.
"Likewise, if passengers are charging their phones, they should do so for only a limited time, not continuously throughout the journey.
"If we see that these instructions are ignored, we will switch off the main power source located near the driver. This is intended to prevent these incidents."
A teen died while charging his phone on an express bus at the Penang Sentral bus terminal here on Friday.
The incident occurred at 6pm when the victim, Mohamad Nur Asymawi Jasmadi, 18, was on the bus traveling to Kuala Lumpur.