Syed Hamid: Bus company suspended after due legal process

KUALA LUMPUR: The Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) have defended themselves today against a report that a local bus company was still being allowed to operate despite being suspended by the commission following a major accident recently.
"We said that we are in the process of suspending them in a press statement released on July 13 and not suspending them," said SPAD chairman Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar.
He said that there is due legal process involved and that the company in question QisTna express Sdn Bhd had been suspended with effect from today.
"The process is clear, we can't give them a day notice to suspend them to be fair to them and to passengers that have bought advance tickets as well," he said adding that SPAD has helped these passengers by finding them other bus services and also by getting the bus company in question to reimburse them.
"There has to be a notice and this was a notice. There must be sufficient notice for fairness. They got a lot of busses and a lot of tickets. It's not failure on our side. We must adhere to due process. We have to have a time period of suspension," he further elaborated.
The report in a local newspaper stated that QisTna Express Sdn Bhd, whose bus had been the cause of a major accident with ten other vehicles on the Menora Tunnel on the North-South highway near Ipoh, Perak on Sunday, were still selling tickets at their counters despite being handed a notice of suspension by SPAD.
Two people were injured in the accident and it was later found out that the bus driver in question had 9 traffic summonses for various offences, while 63 summonses in total were issued to 29 drivers belonging to the company.