Train runs over students

Saturday October 27, 2007

TAMPIN: Two Form Two students were killed when they were run over by a freight train near Kampung Tanjung, Ulu Gadong, in Kota near here.

Five of their schoolmates, all aged between 15 and 17, escaped when they managed to jump off the tracks in the nick of time.

The seven were resting on the railway tracks when the incident occurred at about 11.45pm on Thursday.

The two killed were Fazrul Asri Zulkifli from Juasseh in Bahau and Mohd Hafiz Adnan from Masjid Tanah in Malacca.

The students of SM Agama Hj Mohamed Yatim near here only realised there was a freight train approaching them when the driver sounded the whistle.

The train was heading from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.

Rembau district crime chief Asst Supt Nagappan Kuthuraman said preliminary investigations revealed that the boys could have dozed off while resting on the tracks.

ASP Nagappan said the train driver stopped to report the incident at the Tampin railway station.

He said police would record statements from the five students to find out what they were doing on the tracks.

It is learnt the students had slipped out of their hostel and gone to Kota town for supper.

Villagers at the scene of the incident said the boys would loiter along the tracks almost every night despite being advised not to do so.

Resident Mohamat Hassan, 66, whose house is located several metres from the railway line, said that between 10 and 20 boys could be seen sitting on the tracks every night.

“We have been living here for the past 40 years and this is the first time that such an incident had taken place,” he said.

School authorities refused to comment.

The boys’ remains were sent to the Tampin Hospital for post-mortem and were later released to their next of kin.

Two killed, nine injured after bus plunges into sea

Friday September 28, 2007

By TEH ENG HOCK

JOHOR BARU: Two passengers died after their bus plunged into the sea at the Stulang Laut beach near Jalan Ibrahim Sultan.

Nine more people, including the bus driver, were injured in the 8am accident yesterday and were sent to the Sultanah Aminah Hospital.

Rescuers recovered the body of Esa Aman, 47, at about 8.30am, and the body of Kweh Mei Phing, 49, at around 9.30am. Police fear some passengers might have drifted out to sea.

Rescuers carrying out the body of one of the passengers killed when the bus they were travelling in plunged into the sea at Stulang Laut in Johor Baru yesterday. Two passengers died and nine others, including the driver, were injured in the mishap.

Johor Baru (South) traffic chief Deputy Supt Ooi Kok Siong said the bus was travelling from Johor Baru city along Jalan Lingkaran Dalam towards Stulang Laut when the driver lost control of the vehicle in the rain and it plunged into the sea.

“We will be conducting a more detailed check on the bus and the driver,” he said.

One of the passengers who cheated death, V. Pathamawathy, 54, said the bus was not speeding as it neared a bus stop near her workplace at Menara MSC Cyberport.

“The bus was travelling at normal speed. But somehow it did not stop. The next thing I know, the bus was heading into the sea,” she said.

The clerk suffered a fractured toe on her right leg in the accident.

DSP Ooi said search and rescue operations would continue.

The Johor Baru Fire and Rescue Department operations commander Abdul Hamid Suhari said 19 personnel, including 10 from the scuba diving unit, took part in the search and rescue efforts.

Lucky to be alive: Pathamawathy resting in bed at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Baru yesterday after the accident.

“The bus was lying on its side, making it hard to search for victims. We then used a crane to get the bus upright,” he said.

Kweh’s body was discovered after a crane, borrowed from a nearby construction site, was used to lift the bus.

At about 10.20am, two more cranes arrived to help drag out the bus from the sea. The three cranes finally lifted the bus out at about 11am.

Pathamawathy and three others were warded at the Sultanah Aminah Hospital while five were discharged after receiving outpatient treatment.

Nor Azrin Md Zam, 27, was warded for aspiration pneumonia (swallowing water), while Manis Ibrahim, 52, had a concussion.

Driver R. Moorthy, 51, suffered internal injuries and broke his left leg. The driver could not be interviewed at press time as he was heavily sedated.