Ms. Natalie Yap, 29, was awoken by an itch that wouldn’t go away just an hour into her snooze on a Starmart Express bus from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore on Boxing Day afternoon, and what she saw next was a shocking revelation.
“I was itchy, so I glanced around to see what insect it may be, and I spotted a bedbug between my feet,” she told TODAY on Wednesday.
That was only the beginning of the administrative executive’s eight-hour nightmare. She then proceeded to ask the bus driver if she could change seats, but due to the vehicle’s full capacity, she was forced to stay in the front-most seat, which had no slope, for the remainder of the journey next to the bus driver.
Even still, she continued to detect bedbugs in her surroundings. When she told the driver about it, he responded, “Perhaps it’s from your clothes?”
Ms. Yap discovered that fellow passengers had met the same fate when she arrived at a rest stop four hours after the bus left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
She made a blog entry about the incident and shared it on the bus company’s Facebook page, but it was removed, she said.
She then shared photos of the bedbugs and bites on the bus, which was registration AJB15, on her personal Facebook page. As of Wednesday evening, the post had been shared over 10,000 times.
Ms. Yap told TODAY that she had collected 15 bedbugs and had been bitten 30 times by the conclusion of the bus ride. She has subsequently seen a doctor, paid S$64 in medical bills and taken one day off on Tuesday for medical reasons.
Shafiq Harun, a 21-year-old passenger on the same bus, was bitten in the neck, hands, and body. He went on to say that bedbugs bit the majority of the 25 persons on board, including youngsters.
“We caught quite a few (bedbugs) on the seats, floor, baggage, and our bodies,” he added, adding that the trip back to Singapore was “chaotic.”
Ms. Yap and Mr. Shafiq’s cousin have both filed complaints with the corporation, with Ms. Yap also requesting reimbursement for her medical expenses. Mr. Shafiq claimed that the driver informed them that the bus they were on was a “standby bus” that hadn’t been used in two weeks.
Starmart Express’s assistant manager, Ravi, told TODAY that this is the “first such incidence” the organization has dealt with. According to him, there have been four complaints regarding the incident.
On Tuesday, Starmart Express, which operates over 200 buses, said on its Facebook page that coach number AJB15 had been pulled out of operation and given a chemical wash. Passengers on the impacted bus may seek redress from the firm.
Mr. Ravi verified that the bus has returned to the company’s Malaysian headquarters, where it was last given a chemical wash in November, according to its cleaning certificate. Every month, Starmart Express buses are chemically cleaned, generally, in Malaysia, he said.
According to him, one possible cause of the bedbug infestation was the bugs being transported into the bus by passengers’ clothing or baggage.
He stated that the business is examining the situation and would decide on its next line of action after the investigation is completed.