LATE June 9, 2025, as Eid celebrations began to wane, the East–West Highway near Gerik was struck with heartbreak.
A chartered bus carrying 42 UPSI students plunged into tragedy - 15 precious lives extinguished, and 31 left injured. Lives alight with dreams, voices of our future - silenced in an instant. This is Malaysia’s darkest national heartbreak since Genting in 2013.
Names we must remember
These were not faces on a screen - they were our children, carrying the promise of tomorrow:
Sufea Adela Maslihaizan, 21
Mohammad Aqil Taqiudin, 21
Anis Soffiyya Md Zaidi, 20
Nur Ainul Qistina Mat Ali, 21
Fakhrul Arif Rosdi, 20
Nurul Fatihah Abu Setaman, 22
Nur Dalila Farhana Mohamad Isma, 21
Nurul Izyanti Muhamad Azahar, 21
Nur Amni Nadiah Nik Nor Zabir, 21
Muhammad Mustaqim Rosde, 21
Nor Ayuni Maslan, 21
Nurly Sahirah Azman, 23
Fatin Nasrien Fadli, 22
Muhammad Adib Hazim Halim, 21
Wan Nur Suhaila Wan Muhammad, 22
Each one had a story - an aspiration, a family waiting - and each was part of the fabric of our future.
Comfort woven with resolve
To the families, friends, and classmates: our grief is yours. We hold you in prayer and in our hearts. But love demands more than comfort - it demands courage. Courage to confront the darkness, and to build light in its wake.
Four hands - on ways to honour their lives
Fix the road - literally
That curve - dark, steep, deceiving - must be illuminated with guardrails, reflective markers, speed-bumps, and lighting. Let the highway be transformed into a passage of safety, not hazard.
Embed safety in every journey.
If students charter buses, then each vehicle must carry audit tags, speed-limiter seals, seatbelt monitors, and up-to-date maintenance logs. Drivers must be trained, screened, and rested - not on a clock, but on a conscience.
Empower first responders - and healers.
On risky stretches, station EMT units and grief counsellors. A Samaritan’s attempted turn-off of a jammed engine needs to become a standard protocol - not desperation under fire.
Ignite a cultural shift of vigilance.
See danger? Speak up. Format? Make it civic duty. Pressure must come from below: from families, from students, from every road-user insisting on safe passage.
A nation’s duty: Lead in love
Government, convene a watchdog task force: police, transport, civil society, parents, youth - and give them deadlines.
Universities, own the journey: pre-authorise bus providers, enforce safety checks, and give students the power to refuse unsafe travel.
Transport operators, choose life over schedule. Let integrity drive your operations.
Communities, we are each caretakers. Funds, petitions, gratitude - live your love through vigilance.
A legacy of action, not words
Their names - Sufea, Aqil, Anis, Ainul, and the rest -must not fade. But their stories must be catalysts for construction: of safe roads, of responsible policy, and of a collective conscience.
In grief, we must build. In memory we act. In care, we legislate. Let this tragedy be the compass that guides us - so no family endures another midnight nightmare.”
A pact of remembrance
For each tear shed tonight, may a guardrail be installed.
For each grief-stricken dawn, may a safer highway be born.
For each silent prayer, may a child’s journey be protected.
In memory, in action, in shared resolve - let this be our greatest tribute to those taken too soon. - June 11, 2025
Datuk Dr Vinod Sekhar is the publisher of the Vibes and Chairman of the Petra Group
