A tourist bus crashed into a gorge outside a resort in Kuala Lumpur, killing 37 of its passengers as a result. Rescue operations have been initiated, and authorities claim that they are uncertain regarding the total number of passengers stuck in the gorge, claiming around 53 passengers were traveling on the bus.
The assistant director of Kuala Lumpur’s Rescue Department further admits that the cause of the accident has yet not been unraveled. The spokesman of the fire department added to the details by showing how the bus, actually meant to seat 44 people, was indeed overloaded. The bus was headed back from the Genting Highlands, a strip of small hills a distance of 55 kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur. It was then that it slid off the road and crashed into the ravine.
The rescued include sixteen passengers mostly with severe injuries that are being dealt with in various hospitals in Kuala Lumpur. The police are employing trained dogs to help uncover more people stuck in the unforgiving terrain of the gorge with a bus toppled on top of them. Almost 200 firefighters, doctors, and policemen have been employed in the rescue team. The bus driver was also killed in this accident. Furthermore, since access to the area is not possible through the road, ropes and cranes are being used to lift up and identify people.
The accident took place near Malaysia’s most famous casino, which attracts more than 20 million people per year and has been there for the last 42 years. Most of the bodies, at least 32 remain inside the vehicle and have not been identified as yet. Most of the passengers were Malaysians, while a few were visitors from the Middle East and Thailand.
A similar bus accident took place recently near the Genting Highlands. However, it was far less catastrophic than the current one. Two Indian tourists were killed as a result. Furthermore, the number of people killed in this latest accident far exceeds the last great accident, which took place in 2010. In that accident, 28 people were killed in a bus crash near another tourist attraction, the Cameron Highlands.
Genting Highlands receives many domestic and foreign visitors, especially from countries such as China and Singapore. The roads that lead to this resort, i.e. the site of the accident, are both well maintained and safe, and yet such a catastrophic accident could not be prevented. It is now the responsibility of the Malaysian government and the owners of the Genting Highlands to install further safety precautions, minimizing the chance of a similar accident from occurring in the future.