12 killed in horror crash near NS-Malacca border

Why am I not surprised?

History repeats itself again and again due to inaction on the part of the Transport Ministry/Government. What happened to the Land Transport Commission and the string ideas, regulations and proposals to regulate express buses since the last horror crash?

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SEREMBAN: Twelve people were killed when a north-bound express bus crashed through the guardrail and ploughed into five vehicles heading in the opposition direction at KM223.2 of the North South Expressway near Simpang Ampat here.

Forty-five others were also injured in the 7.45pm accident, which occured near the Negri Sembilan-Malacca border here yesterday.

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.

Apparently, out of the 45 injured, four have been rushed to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital for treatment, 22 were sent to a hospital in Seremban and 12 to another hospital in Malacca.

The express bus had left Malacca about 45 minutes before the accident and was on its way to Kuala Lumpur.

The accident caused a traffic jam stretching for more than 25km along the expressway.

Of the 12 who died, eight were believed to be passengers from the express bus.

One of them was decapitated.

Two others were from a MyVi, which was crushed by the bus, and another from a Honda Accord.

PLUS officials had to divert motorists at the Pedas/Linggi toll plaza as the south bound lanes were impassable to traffic.

A Plus traffic control centre spokesman said the accident occurred at about 6km from the Simpang Ampat toll near Alor Gajah, Malacca.

“The middle and left lanes for the south-bound traffic were blocked by the vehicles involved in the accident while the right lane for the north-bound traffic was closed to facilitate emergency works at the scene,” he added.

Sources said that the department’s bus was carrying delegates for a gathering of former servicemen, which was attended by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil earlier in the day.

“None of them in this bus was injured,” said Malaysia Ex-Servicemen’s Asso­ciation Datuk Muhammad Abdul Ghani.