Transparency International Malaysia wants RCI into LRT collision

 

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-Malaysia) has called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the May 24 Kelana Jaya LRT collision.

The NGO also pressed for the RCI findings to be published as the public deserved an honest explanation.

In a statement today, TI-Malaysia president Muhammad Mohan (above) said the inquiry should be conducted by “independent experts and technocrats from the field”.

“There should be no compromise in doing a transparent investigation, not only on the technical issues but also on the organisation’s system and culture and most importantly, to hold those responsible accountable.

“No matter how high they may be in the social or political ladder,” he said.

Muhammad stressed the need to make the RCI findings public.

“They should make public their findings for the sake of transparency and accountability.

“And also, determine what corrective actions should be put in place, such as retraining and providing additional control procedures to prevent such an unfortunate incident from happening again,” he said.

“This incident should not have occurred merely because of one person’s oversight for a split second.

“Malaysians deserve to know what actually happened, who is accountable, is the public LRT system safe, were there any shortcuts, abuse or cover-ups? These are the questions that need to be answered and presented to the public transparently,” Muhammad added.

Pictures from the Fire and Rescue Dept, taken after the May 24 collision.

The collision resulted in 213 injured passengers, three of whom are currently in the Intensive Care Unit for brain haemorrhage.

It is the worst crash in LRT history.

The Transport Ministry has formed a special committee to investigate the crash and government-linked company Prasarana, which owns the train line, has pledged its cooperation.

Preliminary findings determined that an empty train that was controlled manually (TR240) had collided head-on with a driverless passenger-filled train (TR181) on the same track in an underground tunnel.

Both trains ran at a speed of less than 40km per hour.

Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong previously blamed the “negligent” hostler of the empty train for driving the train in the wrong direction.

Wee later clarified that the probe was also considering other factors after being criticised for the conclusion.

The incident also resulted in Prasarana chairperson Tajuddin Abdul Rahman’s termination after he was widely panned for mishandling a press conference on the crash. - Mkini