- 11 suffered injuries and were rushed to hospital
KUALA LUMPUR: A bus carrying Japanese tourists had a traffic accident in Malaysia on Thursday, leaving one of them dead.
According to fire and rescue authorities in the western Malaysian state of Perak, the bus crashed into a truck on a highway in the state, injuring 11 Japanese tourists — three men and eight women in their 50s to 80s — participating in a tour organized by Japanese travel company JTB Corp.
The tourists were taken to hospital in Taiping, Perak, to receive treatment, and a woman in her 70s died. Four people in their 60s to 70s were hospitalized but were able to communicate.
A local driver and a tour guide who were also on the bus were injured and taken to hospital as well.
The Japanese tourists, set to travel across Malaysia for over a week on the JTB tour, departed Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, on Monday. They were heading to the Cameron Highlands in central Malaysia from the northern region of Penang when the traffic accident occurred.
“As the company hosting the tour, we extend our sincerest apologies and condolences,” JTB President Eijiro Yamakita told a press conference in Tokyo on Friday.
The crash occurred on a highway that runs along the western coast of the Malay Peninsula. A major traffic artery linking key tourism spots and densely populated areas such as Penang, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and Malacca, it is full of highway buses and large trucks as well as sightseeing vehicles.
In Malaysia, a sightseeing bus carrying Chinese tourists crashed into the central reservation of a road in June, killing two people. It was later found that the driver of the bus did not have a driving license and that the vehicle’s operating permit had expired.
Between May and September, Malaysia saw at least three traffic accidents involving highway buses. Over 30 people were injured in a September crash in Perak on the same highway as the latest incident. The country has since been strengthening measures to ensure safety.
JIJI Press