KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — An investigation committee independent of the Ministry of Transport (MoT) is needed to ascertain the cause of the LRT train crash that injured more than 200 people on Monday night.
Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah said the composition of this committee must be devoid of any members of Prasarana Malaysia and MoT to prevent bias.
In a statement, Maria welcomed the sacking of former Prasarana Malaysia chief Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman and described his behaviour during a press conference as “uncouth, rude and despicable”.
“However, we must not forget that his resignation is not the crux of the matter. I strongly stress that the Perikatan Nasional-Barisan Nasional government must be held totally responsible.
“An accident of this scale was clearly a collective negligence and could not have been the mistake of a driver or one individual. The government still owes the public a clear explanation on how the system failure could happen.
“Although minister of transport, Wee Ka Siong had announced a task force committee being formed, I sincerely think a committee of investigation appointed by MoT alone is not enough.
“In order to avoid such accidents from happening again, the people must be assured that there will be a thorough inquiry into the accident.
“There must be another independent committee to ensure transparency and accountability. As Prasarana Malaysia Berhad is a public owned company, the inquiry must adhere to principles of justice, rule of law and to the peoples' right to know the truth,” she said.
Maria asked that the investigation reports be tabled in Parliament and that the government does not hide behind the Official Secrets Act by tabling the full report as a Cabinet paper.
She also asked for MoT to disclose all information related to the management of automatic and manual trains, its SOPs on manual and automatic trains during testing, hierarchy of authority in the operations and management of train schedules and other pertinent information before the conclusion of the investigation.
“Lastly, it was an insult when a pittance of RM1,000 each was thrown to the passengers, who were injured, as compensation for their traumatic experience and tremendous losses. We believe that all the passengers deserve reasonable compensation that will do justice to those who suffered severe injuries and also to those who are still in a state of shock,” she added.
In the 8.45pm incident on Monday, two trains collided on the LRT Kelana Jaya line at KLCC, causing severe injuries to 47 passengers. Another 166 escaped with minor injuries.
