KUANTAN: Express bus drivers travelling along the East Coast Highway here have been facing nightmarish journeys. Several buses have been damaged by stones and other hard objects thrown by unknown people hiding in the hilly areas between Km152 and Km154 of the highway.
The most recent incident on Wednesday saw a window on the left side of a Transnasional express bus heading to Kuala Lumpur from Kuantan shattered.
It was learnt that a woman passenger who was seated beside the window escaped unhurt.
The driver, Ramli Patmo, 47, said the 3pm incident occurred after the Maran rest area and he immediately pulled over to the emergency lane.
"The tinted passenger window had prevented the broken pieces of the window from falling into the bus.
"The area is surrounded by oil palm plantations and there were no settlements. The culprits must have run into the plantation to hide."
Transnasional Kuantan branch operations officer Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman said the incident on Wednesday was the fourth involving the company's express buses.
"Since Sunday, three other buses have suffered the same fate.
"However, the objects thrown by the culprits (in the first three cases) only caused minor dents."
Razak said he was informed that several express buses from other companies also faced similar incidents.
He said he hoped police would work with MTD Prime Sdn Bhd, the operator of the East Coast Highway, to catch the culprits before someone was seriously injured.
"The culprits used to only attack the buses at night but now they daringly do it during the day, and based on the dents found on the buses, some of them are throwing ball bearings."
An MTD Prime official who declined to be named said the company had received reports of such incidents along the stretch and were currently trying to nab those involved.
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