Zakaria Ahmad, the main driver of the express bus, was quoted in The Star as saying the accident could have been worse had his 51-year-old colleague not moved into low gear, or driven between other cars.
According to Zakaria, the bus’s brakes had failed, and pulling the handbrakes in such a situation could have resulted in more dire consequences.
“All he could do was to slow down the vehicle by moving to a lower gear,” Zakaria told reporters outside the Ipoh police headquarters here yesterday.
Zakaria had driven the bus from Kuala Lumpur to Penang on Saturday night, and the co-driver was handling the journey back to Kuala Lumpur, when the incident happened about 2.45pm at KM265.8 of the North-South Expressway.
According to Zakaria, who was sleeping in the bus prior to the crash, the vehicle was inspected before the journey and there was nothing wrong with it.
Police have confirmed the man, who is on a four-day remand, had tested negative for drugs and that the brakes on the vehicle was faulty.
The driver also reportedly has nine outstanding traffic summonses, while the bus had 63 unsettled summonses for various traffic offences.