Kuala Lumpur: The crash involving two Kelana Jaya line LRT trains near the KLCC station last night was caused by the negligence of the hostler or train driver who drove an empty train in the wrong direction, says Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong.
Wee said this was based on preliminary investigations conducted by the Land Public Transport Agency.
“Preliminary findings indicate that the crash was caused by the negligence of the hostler who drove TR40, which was an empty train, in the wrong direction.
“It should have been moving south heading towards Dang Wangi station but moved north instead and caused the crash with TR81 that was carrying 213 passengers,” he said.
Wee said before the crash, at 8.21pm, TR40 was being operated by the automatic train operation (ATO) and had moved southbound from Gombak to the Subang depot, but there, it suffered a time out and stopped when it neared the Kampung Baru station platform.
“Time out occurred when the ATO failed after the vehicle on-board controller stopped. An order was issued for the hostler to drive it manually from Kampung Baru station to Dang Wangi station and it needed to move in the same direction to give way to a train from the south or in ATO mode to continue service.”
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