Thursday, 1 August 2013

Narrow escape for 10 tourists

MUAR: Ten Singaporean tourists cheated death when the express bus they were travelling in crashed at KM145.7 of the North-South Expressway.

The incident happened at about 2am on Wednesday, some 500m from the Pagoh rest area. The bus was en route to Penang.

All the passengers, aged between 20 and 50, and the two bus drivers were injured during the incident.

One of the bus drivers, Mohd Rusdi Ahmad, 28, claimed the vehicle suddenly went out of control and crashed into the road divider before landing on its side.

Mohd Rusdi said he and his colleague, who was driving the bus, were thrown out of the vehicle and landed on the divider.

We quickly went back to the wreckage to rescue the passengers. We were afraid the bus might catch fire. It was chaotic. An old woman even fainted. We managed to bring everyone out from the bus via the roof,” he said.

Mohd Rusdi added that several ambulances arrived minutes later and took the injured passengers and himself to the Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital in Muar.

The bus left Singapore at about 10pm and had a short stopover at the Yong Peng rest area at about 1am before continuing with the journey.

Police confirmed the case and are investigating the incident under Section 43(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987.

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