The transport ministry has revealed that the lorry that was involved in the May 13 accident with a Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) truck in Teluk Intan, Perak, which claimed the lives of nine FRU personnel, was found to be operating outside its approved technical specifications. The lorry operator had its operating licence revoked on May 29.
In a preliminary report, the ministry said that the road transport department had found that the lorry, which had an approved side gate height of 1,016 mm, had only been certified to transport coal. However, the lorry was found to be carrying gravel, which did not comply with its original approval at the time of the incident, the New Straits Times reports.
Based on regulations, vehicles transporting construction materials such as sand or gravel are only permitted to do so if the side gate height does not exceed 762 mm. It was also revealed that during the mishap, the lorry had a gross vehicle weight (GVW) of 40,960 kg, which was 70.67% over the permitted limit of 24,000 kg.
The report also added that the lorry was found to have failed to meet requirements regarding the installation and functionality of its global positioning system (GPS), with the system found to be inactive at the time of the incident.
Meanwhile, an inspection conducted by JPJ and Puspakom revealed that signs of overheating on the lorry’s drum brakes were detected, which was likely caused by the excessive brake usage during the incident. However, no evidence was found to indicate any failure of the steering system despite a claim of such by the driver, the report added.
“Overall, based on the technical inspection, all major mechanical systems of the lorry, including the brakes, tyres, steering and suspension, were found to be in satisfactory condition and in compliance with the required standards. There was no evidence to suggest that any mechanical failure directly contributed to the crash,” the report stated.
Based on Puspakom records, the lorry passed its roadworthiness inspection on March 21 this year. This was despite failing two inspections, both periodic and reperiodic, on September 24 last year. “The failures were due to the overall brake efficiency not meeting the minimum standard, as well as brake imbalance. The vehicle later passed the reperiodic inspection on the same day after corrective measures were taken, with brake efficiency improved to 62%,” the report indicated.
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In totality, how many lorries on the road are safe to operate? How many lives we must forego before they (gov) take enforcement seriously?
Maybe one day some lorries crash straight into ministers’ houses then only the gahmen will take enforcement seriously.
the big question is, moving forward how will enforcement make sure lorries cant break the law, and cause death? what are the steps taken, which would be effective?
Maybe there just has to be enforcement in the first place instead of ikut suka like it has been for a long time.
Why PT/Antony Lim left out the fact that the FRU truck had no seat belts for the benches in the back of the lorry?
Why PT/Antony Lim do not question the use of a truck to transport FRU personnel. Why was a bus not used?
https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/teluk-intan-crash-fru-truck-005012253.html
What happen when your brakes are not balanced?
Vehicle will pulls slightly to one side when the brakes are applied.
What happen when an overloaded vehicles with less than 70% brake performance experience slight brake imbalance?
Multiple the ‘pulls to one side’ by 100 and that lorry will plough through whatever it is in front of it.
My theory is that the brakes on that lorry are still not balance but still within acceptable limit so should not be an issue if the lorry is carrying load within its approve set of criteria. On the day of the incident, the lorry is overloaded,When the driver saw the convoy which i bet was moving in one group and using their siren and beacon light, the driver slowed down. Thats what all of us will do when seing blue or red beacon light and hearing siren. Stepping on the imbalanced brake while carrying weight well over the limit….the rest is history.
You over load a lorry, everything will be off.
Gone also are your roads.
Again, its an enforcement issue.
Always curious, I have looked at the image aftermath many times, 8 can’t find an ‘angle of accident’ which results in this aftermath if it was the lorry that came into the FRU path. It’s seems more to me that the FRU came into the lorry’s path.