cheahsoonhai

Gerakan concern with KL Monorail incident

Dr Cheah Soon Hai hopes company will ramp up its maintenance 

 
 

Press statement by

Gerakan Central Bureau on Environment, Safety and Quality of Life Chairman

Dr Cheah Soon Hai

 
 

31 January 2013

 
 

The recent incident of a KL Monorail bursting of one of its tyres near the Chow Kit Station caught the eye of Gerakan's Central Bureau on Environment, Safety and Quality of Life Chairman, Dr Cheah Soon Hai. He said that while the incident can be considered as unfortunate, measures must be taken to prevent it from repeating.

 
 

"While it is understandable that accidents such as this are inevitable, that does not mean the managing company should shrug its shoulders and responsibilities. Previously there were similar cases where train passengers were stranded after the monorail broke down such as the incident in Brickfield's in 2012."

 
 

Dr Cheah, also Kedah Derga state-assemblyman said that the incident above demonstrates that more needs to be done to minimise this kind of incidents from recurring.

 
 

"The train driver did a marvellous job to ensure the safety of the passengers through his quick reflexes therefore it is highly commended. Also I hope that the response period for a rescue train can be shortened to relieve the ordeal of the passengers."

 
 

He remarked that since the incident happened at 6.30pm during peak hour, the amount of passengers trapped in the train will definitely be higher considering the fact that they just finish work.

 
 

"There was this incident that a monorail broke down in Brickfields last year leaving many passengers stranded up to two hours without fresh air forcing some of them to break the windows." remembered Cheah.

 
 

"If these incidents keep recurring, it will affect the image of Malaysia being a tourist destination since the possibility of having foreigners on the train during this unfortunate incident cannot be discounted. Furthermore it will only strengthen the stereotype against Malaysians of having a poor maintenance culture.

 
 

Finally, Dr Cheah urged the managing company to ramp up their maintenance towards their trains to avoid these kinds of incidents from happening in the future.