SINGAPORE – Two passengers who survived a fatal accident during a journey from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur on Monday said they had received no help from the tour bus companies involved.

The passengers, who were discharged from a hospital in Seremban on Thursday, told The Straits Times that they were left to their own devices after the accident in which two people were killed.

Not only did they have to find their own way to Kuala Lumpur, they were also asked to make claims with their own travel insurance providers, instead of counting on the tour bus companies to file a claim on their behalf.

At around 5am on Monday, an LA Holidays bus the passengers were travelling in collided with a car on the North-South Expressway in Nilai, Seremban, killing the Malaysian bus driver and an Indonesian passenger.

Three Singaporeans who were among the 19 passengers on the bus suffered minor injuries, said local police.

A police investigator said that investigations are ongoing, with initial findings showing that the driver had lost control of the bus, leading to the collision with the Proton Wira sedan that was also heading northwards.

Spanish scientific researcher Raul Lanzas, 34, and his partner Li Ting, 31, were two of the bus passengers who were injured.

Their digital tickets were issued by the KKKL Travel and Tours agency in Singapore. LA Holidays offers regular bus services to various locations in Malaysia in collaboration with the agency.

The couple had planned to explore the rainforests in Taman Negara in Pahang and attend a friend’s wedding in Klang.

Instead, they ended up visiting two hospitals to treat their injuries, and had to go to a police station to collect their belongings that were strewn on the highway after the accident.

They also had to pay for a taxi ride to Kuala Lumpur.

In Ms Li’s correspondence with the KKKL Travel and Tours office seen by ST, the bus service operator asked the couple to file claims with their personal travel insurance providers.

Making claims from the bus insurance included as part of the ticket would require the appointment of a lawyer, a KKKL employee told Ms Li, and claim procedures may “drag up to one to two years”.

Ms Li, who suffered a heavy concussion and bad bruising after she was flung from her window seat and ended up on the aisle of the bus, said she is traumatised and frustrated.

“I almost paid with my life travelling with this company, and it is morally and legally unacceptable for them to demand the passengers pay extra to hire a lawyer,” she said over the phone in Kuala Lumpur.

Ms Li, a sustainability consultant from Hong Kong who is based in London, has also been kept awake at night by her recollections of the accident’s aftermath.

“I have flashbacks of seeing the dead bodies, one almost slashed in half. Whenever I hear the sound of cars driving at night, I imagine there will be a crash,” she added.

Photos of the accident’s aftermath show that the front of the bus was largely destroyed.

A video seen by ST captures a chaotic scene of people with bloodied clothes and lifeless bodies on the road covered with broken glass.

Dr Lanzas, who also works in London, said: “They (the bus company) provided no assistance nor any indication about how to proceed (after the accident).

“Instead of getting in touch with us, we had to contact them.”

He suffered a compression fracture in the fifth vertebra of his lumbar spine, which has left him with jolts of “acute pain” in his back when standing or walking.

Doctors from a specialist hospital in Malaysia said Dr Lanzas will take around six months to recover from his injuries.

The couple plans to travel to Spain, where he can be cared for by his family.

In the terms and conditions listed on the bus tickets they purchased, KKKL states that it “will not be responsible for… loss or accident incurred while taking the coach”, or resulting from other actions carried out by its “coach company partners”.

Dr Lanzas and Ms Li have hired a lawyer to press claims for compensation against LA Holidays.

Their Seremban-based lawyer Toh Eu-Kynn, who is also representing other passengers on the bus, confirmed that his clients will be pressing claims related to the injuries they suffered, while they collect evidence including medical and police reports to build their case.

While he did not disclose the actual amount his clients are seeking, Mr Toh said that, based on a compendium of personal injury awards, a femur injury, for example, could entail a claim of between RM21,500 (S$6,230) and RM48,500.

The actual amount would depend on the severity of injury and the extent to which the claimant’s daily lifestyle has been affected.

Mr Toh said that it is common practice for bus companies in Malaysia to leave passengers involved in road accidents to press claims and gather the necessary documents via their own lawyers, before the companies offer to make an out-of-court settlement or file claims against their insurers.

As there were deaths involved, the accident will also be referred to public prosecutors in Malaysia.

ST has contacted LA Holidays and KKKL Travel and Tours agency for comment.