KUANTAN, Dec 23 — All school buses in Pahang will undergo safety checks with the support of vehicle inspection body Puspakom before the new school year begins, said Pahang police chief Datuk Abd Jalil Hassan today.

"We will be calling all school bus operators and will check their vehicles to ensure they are safe enough to transport students from their homes to school and back,” he said, explaining this initiative was also aimed at avoiding accidents and the loss of students’ lives.

Abd Jalil added that it was also aimed at preventing situations such as the incident in July this year in Machang, Kelantan when a Year Six pupil at Sekolah Kebangsaan Tok Bok died on the spot after he fell through the floorboard of his moving school bus.

The police chief was speaking at a press conference after receiving a courtesy call from the Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation whose delegation included senior vice-chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.

On another matter, Abd Jalil said that as part of its back-to-school programme, the police through its school liaison officers, would organise briefings at all schools throughout the state on the first day of school, Jan 2, 2020, on matters such as safety, cooperating with the police, and how to prevent students from falling prey to drug addiction.

Lee said today’s visit was made for the purposes of submitting ideas on how to strengthen crime-prevention efforts among communities in the state, and to also discuss how the foundation could assist such initiatives.

He added that as part of efforts to disseminate information on crime prevention, a total of 5,000 crime-prevention clubs had been established by the foundation at primary and secondary schools, as well as institutions of higher learning across the country. — Bernama