[UPDATED] Bus driver in fatal UPSI crash had 18 traffic summonses

KUALA LUMPUR: The driver of the bus carrying students from Sultan Idris Education University (UPSI), which crashed in Gerik early yesterday and claimed 15 lives, had a record of 18 traffic summonses.
Federal Traffic Enforcement and Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri said checks on the driver's record showed that 13 summonses were for speeding, one for an accident-related offence, three for not wearing a seatbelt, and one for a faulty third brake light.
"Further checks on the vehicle revealed that the bus had 21 traffic summonses linked to it.
"Five of these are still under investigation, while the rest have been settled in court," he said when contacted today.
It was reported yesterday that the bus, which was carrying 42 UPSI students, was on its way from Jertih, Terengganu, to the university's main campus when it was involved in a collision with a Perodua Alza along the East-West Highway.
Thirteen students died at the scene of the crash, while two others were pronounced dead at the hospital.
Twenty-eight other students sustained injuries of varying severity.
The bus driver has since issued an apology to the victims' families and the students involved in the crash.
Mohd Amirul Fadhil Zulkifle, who is currently warded at Taiping Hospital, claimed that the vehicle's brakes stopped working without warning and that the air system had failed.

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