Overworked bus driver forced to drive despite falling asleep at the wheel

A bus driver for long-haul trips across Peninsular Malaysia was allegedly forced to overwork. He had little to no sleep for six days, thereby endangering the safety of his passengers. When the passengers requested a change of driver, they found there was only one driver on the bus. The requirement for all long-haul trips is two drivers.

Shu Ling, a passenger on said bus described the entire incident in a Facebook post. According to her, “the driver told his boss earlier that day that he was very tired and could no longer send passengers of this bus to their destinations, but the company replied and told him it was possible. They asked the driver to drive slowly.”

The bus driver had no choice but to pay RM80 out of his own pocket to the remaining passengers to take a Grab to their destination.

Closer to home, there have been similar incidents of bus drivers nodding off at the wheel. In 2018, a Singapore bus driver fell asleep at the wheel of his Tower Transit bus, and collided into a stationary lorry along Pasir Panjang Road.

The impact caused the victims and others who were boarding the lorry to be flung off. Those in the driver’s and passenger seats were also injured.

In 2021, a 42-year-old bus captain was driving his bus down Yishun Street 31 when he fell asleep at the wheel. The bus crashed into a cement bollard in front of a bus stop. There were ten passengers on board when the accident occurred. Three of them suffered injuries, and two had to be taken to the hospital. The bus captain said he was unable to get enough rest due to the shift system his bus company employs.

According to LandTransportGuru, the breakdown of shifts for SBS and SMRT bus drivers are as follows:

Both SBS and SMRT buses employ a six-day work week, approximately 44-hours a week. Working hours are dependent entirely on the schedule, and do not factor in unscheduled delays such as traffic congestion. In 2019, there were multiple court cases involving SBS bus drivers suing their employer, claiming they were underpaid for their overtime work, and that their working hours did not match their monthly pay slips. However, the courts noted that although SBS required its drivers to work 48-hours a week - inclusive of four hours of “built-in” overtime, the work week does include at least 45-minutes of rest periods a day for breaks and meals. This works out to 43.5 total hours a week, which is not in breach of the Employment Act. The court also told the SBS representatives in court that they “must employ enough drivers to have some buffer to cater for exigencies of service, such that you don’t need to invoke statutory exceptions for permanently exceeding the limits.”

Do you think bus drivers get enough rest?