KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) recorded 17 deaths due to collisions along the 1,655-kilometre railway stretch last year.

KTMB Corporate Communications head Ahmad Asri Khalbi in a statement yesterday said that KTMB also recorded 53 cases of collisions with livestock. There were also 86 cases of equipment and cable thefts and 14 incidents where stones were hurled at trains last year.

He said last year, KTMB had a loss of almost RM200,000 to replace stolen equipment and in repairing its assets due to train collisions with livestock.

"The human and animal encroachment have had a serious impact on the operation of the railways considering that they occur frequently causing damage to assets and delaying train services. There is also the possibility of more serious accidents happening,” he added.

Ahmad Asri said various proactive measures were taken to reduce such incidents and continuous efforts would be carried out to ensure that such incidents did not affect train operations. — Bernama