National Transportation Safety Board in the works

The Transport Ministry will set up a National Transportation Safety Board to monitor all aspects related to roads, rail, aviation and maritime safety.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the establishment of the board is a follow-up of the 51 proposals for improving bus transport proposed by an independent advisory panel following the Genting Highlands bus crash tragedy two years ago.

"Several meetings have been held on the formation of the board and it is now in the final stage. It will be submitted to the Attorney-General's Chambers for evaluation before being brought to the Cabinet and tabled in Parliament.

"So far, we have the framework and guidelines for the establishment of the body besides the question of appointing a chairman and board members from government agencies and NGOs besides local leaders," he said.

He was speaking to reporters after closing a 1Komuniti 1JPJ programme (SKSJ) at Sekolah Menengah Seri Bentong, here Sunday.

It is understood the Board will assume the role of an advisor and will investigate, analyse and report directly to the government any suggestions and improvements on issues related to transport safety in the country, in addition to increasing public awareness on similar matters.

At the same time, Liow assured that the board will not overlap the functions of existing agencies such as the Malaysian Road Safety Department (JKJR) and the Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros).

The Independent advisory panel, before this, was formed following a crash involving a double-decker bus at KM3.6 Jalan Genting Highlands-Kuala Lumpur on Aug 21 two years ago, which is considered the country's worst road tragedy in which 37 people were killed and 16 injured.