JPJ director-general Aedy Fadly Ramli said the investigation is in its final stages before the papers are submitted to the deputy public prosecutor for a decision on potential charges.

“We are preparing two sets of investigation papers – one on the bus operator and another on the company that leased the bus. The documents are still under JPJ’s review, and we expect to hand them over to the prosecution soon,” he said at a press conference here.

The UPSI students who died were among 42 students travelling by bus on the East-West Highway from Jerteh, Terengganu to the university’s main campus in Tanjung Malim, Perak. The bus overturned after it collided with a Perodua Alza.

Asked about reports that JPJ was unable to record a statement from the bus operator as he had suffered a heart attack, Aedy said his department had not been officially informed of the matter. “He (the bus operator) suffered a heart attack, but that has no bearing on JPJ’s actions. I have not received any reports to the contrary. We will still proceed; if he is in hospital, we will wait,” he said.

Last week, the transport ministry said it had revoked the permit for the bus operator involved in the crash. Transport minister Loke Siew Fook said a preliminary investigation found that the operator had breached several key conditions, including illegally leasing its permit to a third party, and failing to activate the vehicle’s GPS tracking system.