Online petition for Nian Ning

By ONG YEE TING

The Star Online - 4th February 2008

yeeting@thestar.com.my

PENANG: Friends of Lee Nian Ning, a medical student who died in a bus accident on Jan 25, have set up a website to seek signatures for a petition on express bus safety that they will send to the Transport Ministry after Chinese New Year.

There is also an online forum at the website (http:// www.buscrashnomore.blogspot.com) to discuss bus crashes in Malaysia.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia law student Teo Lee Ken said the site had already received 17,000 hits and 3,750 e-signatures since it was set up on Jan 28.

He said the website with the theme: ‘If this happened to her, it can happen to you’ targeted students who use public buses.

“We don’t know how much we can change the situation but we know that something needs to be done and someone has to start something,” he told reporters while collecting signatures after the memorial service for Nian Ning at Mahindrama Buddhist Temple yesterday.

Nian Ning, 21, a medical student and Public Services Department scholar at the University of New South Wales in Australia, was killed in an accident when the double-decker express bus she boarded from Penang to Kuala Lumpur crashed near Slim River at 5.55pm on Jan 25.

Universiti Malaya (UM) engineering student Desmond Tan said the idea to set up the website and forum came from a mutual friend who is now studying in Wales.

“He was saddened by her passing and wanted to do something for her although he couldn’t be physically here.

“He then suggested that we start a website that could reach out to all people around the world and create awareness on the importance of bus safety and to draw public attention to together prevent such tragedies,” he said.

Tan said they are now working to get feedback and suggestions from students in local colleges and universities.

“We are really glad that some strangers who came to know us through the website have volunteered to become our representatives in their respective colleges and universities,” he said.

He said they would hand in the petition to the Transport Ministry and the bus company a week after Chinese New Year.

“However, the campaign will continue until we get at least 26,000 signatures.”

Nian Ning’s father Lee Hock Chuan, 50 said she had been looking forward to celebrating Chinese New Year together with the family.

“She had even baked some festive cookies with her mother earlier,” he said.