Make full LRT accident report public, urges ex-MOT officer

 

The independent committee which probed the May 24 light rail transit (LRT) accident has been urged to make its full report public.

Chung Yi Fan, a former special functions officer to then transport minister Anthony Loke, said not doing so would be unfair to the committee and its reputation.

"Only by releasing the investigation report in full, we can evaluate to what extent was the investigation conducted in a professional and thorough manner," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Chung has been a vocal critic of the Ministry of Transport's (MOT) previous "blame the driver" approach and had demanded questions on why a train involved in the accident was being tested at 8pm.

He said that the ministry's press conference on the committee's findings was scant on details.

In particular, Chung said that a transcript of what transpired between the hostler (driver) and the operation control centre would have been part of the report and provide the public with important clues as to what had happened.

Chung was also critical of the ministry's decision not to inform the public on the safety record of the staff involved in the accident.

Among others, he said the public had a right to know if the people involved were properly trained or whether they were fatigued at the time.

"Can we rule out any of these factors for the May 24 crash? Any credible investigation would look into these angles.

"We don't know the answers now because the ministry said nothing," he said.

The Transport Ministry today said the committee established two reasons why the accident, which has dozens injured and a few in critical condition, occurred.

Firstly, the hostler (driver) and the operation control centre controller "overlooked" and "missed critical procedures" when attempting to guide a stalled Train 40 to a "re-entry" point near the Dang Wangi LRT station.

This resulted in Train 40 being manually piloted northbound towards the KLCC station in the wrong direction.

Secondly, the "manual route reservation (MRR)" system used to hold Train 81 - carrying 213 passengers - while the Train 40 situation was being attended to was lifted "prematurely" causing train 81 to depart the KLCC station and colliding with Train 40." - Mkini