KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 — A memorandum to establish the Malaysian Transport Safety Board (MTSB), which will be tasked with investigating road accidents, is expected to be presented to the Cabinet soon.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said that once Cabinet approval is obtained, the MTSB Bill will be tabled in Parliament.
“To achieve the target of establishing the MTSB, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) held engagement sessions with agencies and stakeholders from May to October this year,” he said.
“MOT will also hold engagement sessions with the governments of Sabah and Sarawak, as well as workshops on staffing proposals, the draft bill and the necessary legal amendments,” he said during the oral question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat.
He was responding to a question from Shaharizukirnain Abd Kadir (PN-Setiu) on the main constraints that have delayed the establishment of the MTSB, which has been proposed for nearly 11 years, despite the persistently high rate of road accidents and the need to strengthen transport-sector safety.
Loke said until the MTSB is established, the MOT will continue using special accident investigation committees, such as those formed to probe the accident involving Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel in Teluk Intan and the bus crash involving Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (Upsi) students in Gerik, Perak.
In his reply to a supplementary question from Shaharizukirnain on whether the MOT plans to make the MTSB an independent agency for conducting transport safety investigations and monitoring, similar to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), Loke said the MTSB model has not yet been finalised.
However, he said the ministry is taking into account various views and making comparisons with international transport safety agencies, while also considering best practices adopted abroad.
“In terms of an investigative agency, of course, there is independence. In fact, the task force we have established is already free to conduct any investigation and make any recommendations,” he said.
“From the ministry’s perspective, once the report is completed, it will not be edited or amended, and it will be released publicly, as I have done before,” he said.
