A day after the tragic crash on PLUS highway which killed a 50-year-old housewife and her daughter, a witness who was at the scene of the crash explains the massive pile-up as a runaway truck rampaging through several vehicles and the horror that took place to Cars, Bikes & Trucks EXCLUSIVELY.
TRAGEDY: Two people were killed on KM256 northbound Plus Highway when a lorry trailer was out of control and hitting five cars and a truck. According to witness, the trailer was experiencing brake malfunction (Photo courtesy of Fire and Rescue Department)
By Shahrim Tamrin
For an express bus driver, working on a day before Hari Raya Aidiladha would be just another routine with added precaution in view of the ‘balik kampung’ busy traffic.
Hamdan Haron was driving a Kangar-bound Transnasional express bus with 37 passengers on board after departing from Ipoh at 11 a.m. when he witnessed a tragedy at KM256.1 (northbound) of Plus highway, several kilometres after Menora Tunnel.
Recalling the incident to CBT, Hamdan said the traffic on the North-South highway was heavy with several truck trailers on the slow lane after the tunnel.
It was slightly downhill, he said, as the express bus was trying to overtake a slow moving white and red striped Hino truck transporting mosaic tiles in the yellow trailer on the left lane.
“When I was travelling side by side with the Hino trailer, suddenly the driver gave a long honk and he waved at me frantically,” said the 47-year-old bus driver from Batu Gajah.
Hamdan explained that the truck driver communicated with hand signal indicating that the truck was experiencing brake failure and requested a space for the yellow trailer to nudge into the right lane. “He also rolled down the window saying something.”
“So I reduced my travelling speed to allow the yellow trailer to be ahead of me,” he said. “But the traffic ahead was moving slowly. A white truck was on the right lane with five or six cars in front since a Plus Ronda team was placing traffic cones on emergency lane while attending to a car breakdown.”
As the Hino truck was already ahead of Hamdan, he had an intuition that something awful would occur.
According to witness, the truck slammed into a Proton Saga and dragged the car while hitting several other cars for about 100 metres. (Photo source: Facebook)
“Knowing that a truck with brake malfunction was closing towards a slow traffic, I kept my distance. Few seconds later, the lorry trailer rammed at the rear of the white truck,” said the express bus driver.
Hamdan was about 20-feet from the white truck when it flipped sideway on the road shoulder and watched in horror of the Hino truck trailer laden with mosaic tiles barrelled through several vehicles.
“The yellow trailer was already out of control and next, it slammed into a red Saga and dragged the car for about 100 metres going downhill while at the same time ‘shoving aside’ five cars – a Perodua Myvi, a Mercedes, two Proton Alza and a Honda City,” Hamdan harrowingly recalls.
The Hino truck was heading towards Penang from Johor Bahru.
Bus driver still shaken after witnessing gruesome tragic crash on Plus highway
Trying to regain his composure, Hamdan told CBT that he managed to manoeuvre the bus safely through the debris and vehicle parts while passing through the gruesome crash site.
“But the image of the truck trampling the rear of red Saga, stuck like a leech and dragging the car downhill for a few seconds, are something I won’t forget,” said Hamdan with a 20-year experience manning heavy vehicles as a university campus driver as well as a tractor truck driver plying the Ipoh-Singapore route in the 90’s.
Hamdan also said that he would lodge a report as a witness to assist traffic police in the investigation and help the family of the deceased with a clearer picture.
Asked if the tragedy could have been avoided if he was in the truck driver’s shoes yesterday despite a brake failure, Hamdan said: “I don’t know. If I were the lorry driver, I would probably be taking a different path but it is really difficult to say because this is a split-second decision.”
“What I saw yesterday was unforgettable and I still feel traumatized,” said the Transnasional driver.
Norhayati Wook, 50, and daughter Siti Yuslianis Roslan, 20, a student of Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), both occupied the rear seat, died on the spot from head injuries while three other siblings suffered minor injuries. The family was on the way to Lenggong, Perak to celebrate the Eid Mubarak today.
Police spokesperson told CBT that the 11.30 a.m incident yesterday was being investigated under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987.
Post time 5-10-2014 06:12 PM
