[MediconStop]

Published: Monday October 11, 2010 MYT 11:41:00 AM
Updated: Monday October 11, 2010 MYT 12:31:59 PM

Horror crash : Death toll now 15, some victims identified (Update)

By MARTIN CARVALHO

MALACCA: The death toll in the horrific Simpang Ampat crash increased to 15, as three more succumbed to their injuries Monday morning. Meanwhile, 11 of the 12 earlier fatalities in the accident along the North South Highway Sunday night were identified Malaysians. The remaining victims were Myanmar nationals. The dead were identified by police with the help of distraught relatives, who began streaming to the Malacca Hospital’s mortuary around 10pm Sunday.

The dead included Nur Shapika Baba, 19, from Pokok Mangga; Muhammad Farizuddin, 19, from Balai Panjang; Sharene Sofea Fadzry Tan, 18, from Taman Semabok Perdana; Norazmi Abdul Karim, 24, from Pondol Kempas; Azizi Ajis, 19, from Kampung Gapis; Ng Sok Kuan, 52, from Sungai Udang; R. Ramachandra , 52, from Klebang Besar, all in Malacca.

The other victims were Pang Sui Moei, 57, from Segamat; Goo Chuan Heng, 34, from Batu Pahat (boht Johor); and Myanmars Kam Khaw Tual, 18, Pau Khaw Tual, 29, and Cin Thawa Tuang, whose age is still unknown. Hospital authorities have assigned a special room for distraught family members to mourn their loss with volunteers from local Buddhist and Muslim organisations at hand to comfort bereaving families.

The 15 were killed when a north-bound express bus crashed through the guardrail and ploughed into five vehicles heading in the opposite direction at KM223.2 of the North South Expressway near Simpang Ampat here on Sunday. Forty-five others were also injured in the 7.45pm accident, which occurred near the Negri Sembilan-Malacca border.

Witnesses said the express bus crashed into the rear of a car before the driver lost control of his vehicle and rammed through the guardrail and onto the path of an oncoming bus, two cars and a motorcycle. The impact caused the express bus to flip onto its side. The bus driver and motorcyclist were among the casualties. The oncoming bus belonged to the Welfare Department.

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Tuesday October 12, 2010

Survivors and families recount horror

SEREMBAN: Dinner was getting cold when businessman Goo Chuan Aik received a call on Sunday evening. He had assumed the call was from his two siblings telling him they would soon be home in Batu Pahat from their daily trip to Kajang. Instead, he was told younger brother Chuan Heng would never come home for dinner again – he was dead. Chuan Heng died on the spot in the accident along the North-South Expressway involving an express bus and five other vehicles.



Painful sight: Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan (right) and hospital director Dr Jaafar Che Mat visiting an injured victim in the ICU at the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital in Seremban yesterday.

Also in the Toyota Hiace van with him was elder sister Ai Hwa, 41, who escaped the brush with death. “It was just a regular trip. No one was supposed to die. “His wife is too distraught to speak and his two children are only three and six years old. “How can we tell them that their father is dead?” asked Chuan Aik.

There are ten siblings in the family. Another brother Chuan Seng had rushed to the scene of the accident but Chuan Heng was already dead by then. Chuan Seng, his T-shirt and shorts drenched in blood, was later seen at the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital (TJH) desperately looking for his siblings and crying out that he could not find them.

Chuan Aik, who claimed his brother’s remains from the Malacca Hospital yesterday morning, said the family would be holding a wake for Chuan Heng in Batu Pahat. He added that his sister Ai Hwa, who had been discharged from the same hospital, was still recovering from shock. At the TJH here, 18-year-old Tew Chi Ling was thankful to be alive but upset that so many lives were lost.

Tew was on her way back to Kuala Lumpur after spending the weekend with her family in Malacca. One minute the college student was enjoying music on her MP4 player, the next her world turned upside down. “There were cries and screams everywhere. “My friend Tai Hui Tieng and I managed to crawl out of the bus through a window,” she said.

Another college student, 20-year-old Nursyafarin Razak from Shah Alam, was asleep but woke up when she felt the bus shaking violently – with many passengers shouting in fear and scrambling to get out. Another passenger, Tay, 27, claimed the bus was in the middle lane of the highway when the driver tried to move to the fast lane.

“The next thing I knew, we had hit the guardrail and crashed into traffic going in the opposite direction,” said the administration officer. Tay sustained a deep gash on her head which required 20 stitches. Of the 23 people injured in the accident admitted to TJH on Sunday, six had been discharged, and of the remaining, all but three were in stable condition.

[EsAllCams]

Tuesday October 12, 2010

Strength of guardrail suspect, says association



PETALING JAYA: Bus driver R. Ramachandra (pic) who died in Sunday’s horrific bus crash should not be blamed solely for the accident, said Pan-Malaysia Bus Ope_rators’ Association president Datuk Ashfar Ali. He said it was easy to scapegoat the 52-year-old Ekspres Delima bus driver.

Ramachandra was killed after the bus he was driving crashed through a guardrail and ploughed into five other vehicles travelling in the opposite direction along the North-South Expressway near Simpang Ampat. “The real issue is the strength of the guardrail. It was not strong enough to stop the bus from crashing into the other side of the highway.

This is very similar to the Bukit Gantang accident three years ago,” said Ashfar yesterday. He was referring to the 2007 accident where an express bus with 29 people on board crashed through a guardrail by the side of the NSE and plunged into a ditch five metres below, killing 22 people. Ashfar added that express bus passengers had a role to play in ensuring their own safety.

“If a bus driver is driving too fast, passengers should remind him to slow down because their lives are at stake,” he said. However, he assured the public not to worry about travelling by bus. “Based on Road Safety Department statistics, express buses are among the safest modes of transportation. Ashfar said Delima Ekspres Sdn Bhd had been plying the Kuala Lumpur-Malacca route for more than 10 years.

Meanwhile, police said that Ramachandra had a clean traffic record. “Initial investigations reveal that he and the bus had no summonses,” said federal traffic chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Abdul Aziz Yusof . “We are in the midst of interviewing witnesses and victims to get a better picture of what actually happened,” he added.

[85IbLcwQ]

Published: Tuesday October 12, 2010 MYT 9:41:00 PM
Updated: Tuesday October 12, 2010 MYT 9:57:01 PM

Horror crash: Bus towed to police station as probe begins

SEREMBAN: The ill-fated Delima Express bus, which was involved in a crash that killed 12 people at KM223 of the North-South Expressway near the Simpang Ampat toll plaza on Sunday, has been towed to the Rembau police station for investigations. Rembau police chief DSP Mizan Md Dom said the investigation process on the bus that was carrying 34 passengers would involve the police, Road Transport Department (JPJ), Road Safety Department (JKJR) and the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros).

"Police will also carry out investigations to determine if the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs," he said when contacted Tuesday. Mizan said the bodies of three Myanmar nationals - Pau Khan Tual, 21, Cin Thawa Tuang, 21, and Kam Khaw Tual, 19 - who perished in the accident were claimed Tuesday by the Myanmar Embassy from the Malacca Hospital. "Only three of the 12 bodies have yet to be claimed by their families," he said. Meanwhile, the owners of the bus, Kuala Lumpur Melaka Express Sdn Bhd, offered RM1,000 each to families of the deceased and RM500 to the injured passengers.

The company's general manager Vincent Mah said families of the victims can contact 06-3371663 or 016-6621333. He added that the driver of the bus, R. Ramachandra, 52, who was killed in the accident, started working with the company in January 2007, and had no disciplinary problems. In Kuala Lumpur, the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board said it would not temporarily suspend the services of the bus company. However, its director Datin Naimah Ramli said the decision whether to suspend or cancel the company's permit would only be known after a special meeting was held.

"The meeting with the enforcement and technical agencies like the police, Miros, JPJ and Puspakom will be held soon. "At the meeting, the investigation report will be tabled before a unanimous decision is made whether to take action against the bus company or otherwise," she said. Naimah said the board visited the express bus company's office in Malacca on Tuesday and carried out the auditing procedure and inspection on the company's operations and looked at safety precautions for the passengers.

On Monday, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha said initial investigations had revealed that the bus, in service since 2007, had undergone periodical inspections by Puspakom, the last of which was done in May, while the tyres were still in good condition. Federal Traffic Police chief Datuk Abdul Aziz Yusof said the records showed that the bus company and the driver were clean and had never been involved in any serious accident before this. - Bernama

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Published: Tuesday October 12, 2010 MYT 5:29:00 PM

Horror crash: All but six injured discharged from hospital

By CHITRA S. NATHAN

SEREMBAN: All but six injured victims of the Simpang Ampat express bus crash have been discharged from the Tuanku Ja'afar Hospital (TJH) here. Hospital director Dr. Jaafar Che Mat said 10 patients were discharged Tuesday while the rest were still being treated at the hospital. "We have a patient each in our intensive care and high dependency units who are in critical but stable condition. "The rest are still under observation in normal wards and will be discharged soon," he said when contacted Tuesday.

On Sunday, 23 people rescued from the crash site along KM223.2 of the North-South Expressway near Simpang Ampat were sent to the hospital for treatment. One victim who suffered from a vascular injury was referred to Kuala Lumpur Hospital while the rest were treated at the TJH. Six were discharged on Monday morning. Dr. Jaafar said both patients in critical care were showing progress and responding positively to treatment.

"They are showing signs of recovery but it is still too early for us to say when they can be transferred to the normal ward. "The two patients are Lam Fong Weng, 59, from Segamat, Johor and Kok Sue San, 24 from Selangor," he said. Twelve people died in the accident, when an express bus travelling from Malacca to Kuala Lumpur crashed through a guard rail and ploughed into five vehicles.

[Overlord]

Published: Friday October 15, 2010 MYT 12:00:00 PM
Updated: Friday October 15, 2010 MYT 1:52:38 PM

Death toll from horrific bus crash rises to 13

BY MARTIN CARVALHO

MALACCA: A woman who suffered head injuries in the horrific bus crash along the North South Expressway near Linggi last Sunday has died, bringing the death toll to 13. Sharifah Nor Asmira Syed Sallehudin, 21, succumbed to head injuries at the Malacca Hospital's intensive care unit at 12.05am on Friday. The remains of Sharifah, a language student at an institute in Kuala Lumpur, had been sent to her home in Kampung Padang Marang in Terengganu at 3am.