Monday, September 30, 2013

Road Safety Issue: Genting Bus Crash


Public transports in Malaysia especially express buses are in need for bus safety driving. Inappropriate bus driving behaviors most likely lead to traffic violation such as speeding, run through traffic lights, and illegal overtaking. However, inappropriate bus driving may not only limited to traffic violations but also mean dangerous driving such as tail gate another vehicle and sudden change direction. Bus incidents are major problems in Malaysia’s road transportation, as they as main cause of danger to passengers, other road users and public properties. Bus incidents cause dead and injuries. It downgrades the safety of public bus services and creates bad perception among passengers.

We have been surprised recently by the worst road tragedy in Genting Higlands where a bus plunged into a 60m ravine while descending from Genting Entertainment City. This tragedy has made people around lembah klang keep away from using public transport, Genting Bus for their trip to Genting Highlands. Thirty seven people were killed in the road tragedy. Recent accident was not the first disaster occurs in Genting Highlands but what is the main factor towards this tragedy?

Statistic shows some of accidents in the area over the years. Seventeen people died in july 15, 1996, when the bus heading back from Genting Highlands fell 100m into a ravine. On the 31 December, 1996, another bus from Genting Highlands crashed into a ravine near the Chin Swee Temple. Nov 14, 1999, a twelve year old boy from Singapore died. November 20, 2006, June 3, 2008, sept 2, 2010, October 29, 2010, March 5, 2012, and recently in August 22, 2013. These are the statistics of bus crash in Genting Highlands from 1996 to 2013. 

Providing an image of safe and comfortable bus riding experience to passengers is challenging among public bus operators in Malaysia. The recent case of the bus disaster in Genting Highlands has caused many questions to be asked from the public. Was the bus driver drunk? Why did the bus company hire the driver? Whose fault was it? If you were the Public Relations officer for the Genting Bus, how would you rectify the situation to end the rumours and save the image of your company? 

Written by, 
Muhammad Solahuddin Shamsul Ariffin


10 comments:

  1. Salam to all fellow classmates, great writing over the bus safety awareness article Udin, a very hot topic to discuss about. First and foremost, I must say that bus accidents has become some sort of a ‘trend’ nowadays especially at trips to Genting Highland. What some of us are not emphasizing is that the safety we should get for the rate we are paying for our bus rides. It is something that all passengers should question about in terms of its safety wise of the bus and the driver itself. All bus companies should undergo early precaution to ensure that there will be no chances at all for crashes and accidents. Although for some bus drivers may be a routine route for them travelling up and down to Genting Highland, but they must always be aware that anything could happen at the slightest careless of driving, regardless of any weather condition. And of course, if there are cases of bus accidents, automatically the image of the bus company will be jeopardized. This is when the hardest part of all pr practitioners from the bus companies comes in, to clarify and to settle down the whole situation. It is basically trust and consumer loyalty that needs to be saved first when times like these occur. Building desirable public relations is a continuous process and it depends on how the pr people try to achieve back their customer’s favour. It is important to add to the company’s management reputation by showing pride and efforts in terms of promising that there will be better safety measures taken, guaranteed to all the passengers. Other efforts similar like these could help to sustain good public percetion for the particular company in gaining back customer loyalty.

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  2. Such a good writing Udin Sham. To comment on the issue it was sad how the accident has caused death to 37 innocent people. I know how the malay phrase says "Malang tidak berbau" but I have to side on the majority by putting the blame on the bus driver. I know it's a little unfair and yes it's true how some accidents can be avoided, but that the bus company should still take the blame on the issue. Due to the accident, the bus not only will effect it's reputation, but probably will effect Genting's because some people might be scared to go up there because some might think it's no longer safe to go up there.

    I think the bus company will need to do something to ensure that their reputation will not be effected that much by the incident. And they should probably give some sort of compensation to the family of those who died. This is one to show that they would take the blame for what happened, and two, as a way of improving their reputation.

    As for Genting, they probably should come up with an advertisement or campaign to show to the public/world that the place is safe. Luckily for them, by closing the place for renovation process, they in way buy an extra time so that they could figuring out ways on how to make sure that people will still come there and not scared.

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    1. I know it's a little unfair and yes it's true how some accidents can't be avoided, but I still think that the bus company should still take the blame on the issue*

      Just noticed that there's a mistakes in my comment earlier. Sorry

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  3. Salam, Interesting issue here people!

    I am sooooo not going to Genting anymore. It gives me the chills whenever i start to think about this.....
    Hungry Ghost Festival + Genting bus tragedy? Ironic? HAHA ok kidding guys!

    Anyways, I have to agree with Syahmi on this. I blame the bus driver as well because i cant blame the road since Genting roads has always been winding. The bus was travelling DOWNHILL from Genting Highlands, on route to KL Sentral so he should NOT speed in the first place.
    37 died is a no joke, bus drivers should take this tragedy as a wake up call. The safety of our public transportation have remained in a sorry state. I still see many express buses speeding on the road, many stage buses which are not road-worthy so on and so forth. Police and JPJ should constantly do road blocks and check-ups at Genting roads.

    -TZ

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    1. assalamualaikum. i'm gonna have to agree with syahmi and tia. 100%. i mean, in my psychological assessment, most of the accidents happen due to do the drivers' mistake. The safety of the passengers are not a priority for them. Drivers are incompetent. They only look at it as a job. nothing more, nothing less. in my humble opinion, a good driver should really think about the safety of their passengers before themselves. they need to be in the right state of mind at ALL times to perform well.

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    2. hi hello. of course in this situation no one would want to take the blame. based on syahmi's, tia's and radin's opinion and many others out there, i believe any drivers play an important role in getting their passengers safely arrived at their destination and the agency or the bus/taxi company itself must be responsible for anything. if i were to make any changes or implement a new policy, i would ensure that we hire drivers at a young age which gives a low possibility of getting heart attack. not only that, each drivers will be trained first before there are allowed to drive to Genting or long distance journey. after this incident, many refused to take bus or any public transportation due to bad image of genting bus service. what we can do to improve this situation is to install a camera in each bus to monitor the driver's behaviour or condition. if any of the drivers were to break any rules stated, the company may take action to suspend or to make the position no longer available.

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  6. I was deeply saddened when hearing of the Genting bus tragedy and also, it gave me the creeps because I went there exactly a week before the accident! I was (and still am) grateful that I boarded a bus with a very responsible and cautious driver.

    About the tragedy, it happened because of brake failure of the bus. One of the survivors recalled the incident the bus driver actually knew that the bus is having brake problems. Despite the brake problem, the driver drove fast till it plunged into the ravine.

    We can clearly see there are two problems here: the bus itself and the driver. The management is responsible in maintaining the condition of the their buses while bus drivers as what Syahmi said, the driver should think of the safety of the passengers.

    However, despite the many accidents occurred, Genting still manage to attract many visitors to come and enjoy the fun at the peak. How do they do it? An excellent PR work, of course. In Genting Berhad's Annual Report 2009, Genting has an emergency response team (ERT) to handle urgent situations. When there is an emergency, a team from Genting will be there to assist.

    In a nutshell, the management and the bus driver has a responsibility of keeping their passengers safe. Not only that, Genting has come up with a proactive step by having a response team should there be any emergency. Kudos to Genting!

    -`Ainul Nadiah

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  7. Thank you Ainul for stating the cause of the bus incident in Genting. Well for me, I would suggest that every transportation company would implement a regulation of checking every bus in terms of its performance before starting on a journey and not to forget the condition of the driver. Before any journey may start, every driver is compulsory on taking drug tests to lower down possibilities of a crash. Same as the bus where before a journey, it must pass some sort of an inspection. Some will think it is not necessary and time consuming, but still, prevention is better than cure. As a practitioner, it is compulsory to readied ourselves to confront with Mr Crisis. Lets take it this way, whenever an incident occurred, we can always defend our company by stating that we have take safety steps thus putting into the public’s mind that the company had done something hence the incident might be caused by other factors.

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