Everyone In This Bus Could Have Perished If It Weren't For Their Driver, Encik Asoghan
Over 40 factory workers escaped death when their factory bus roof was torn apart after the vehicle crashed into a flyover under construction along the coastal expressway in Bayan Lepas.
By Sadho Ram — 11 Mar 2015, 03:38 PM
On 10 March, D. Asoghan, aged 49, a bus driver who was driving 45 factory workers to work in his bus early in the morning, realised he had no choice but to crash his runaway bus into a concrete column
He did so deliberately to save his 45 passengers from a worse fate. The brakes of his bus had failed and he had to do something to slow it down. The bus was moving along the Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu expressway near the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone.
On approaching a junction, he ran over a barricade and shouted for everyone to duck before the bus crashed onto a T-shaped support column of an elevated road, which was still under construction.
thestar.com.myThe impact sheared off the bus roof and it finally came to a halt 150m away. However, Asoghan's quick thinking and decision saved him and the lives of his passengers, who sustained minor injuries.
Asoghan said the bus would not stop no matter how hard he stepped on the brakes. "I had two choices – to take a hard right (into Hilir Sungai Kluang) which would cause the bus to topple over or go straight and ram the barricade."
“I crashed through the barrier and used the support column to slow the bus down. The roof came off, but it stopped the bus,” he said yesterday. Asoghan received outpatient treatment for a minor head injury.
Fire and Rescue Department personnel took nearly an hour to free the passengers, some of whom were trapped in their seats after the 5.55am accident yesterday.
According to Bayan Baru fire station officer-in-charge Rohizad Yusof, the passengers were all Indonesians and most of them women. Some of the victims sustained serious injuries.
Victims waiting for the treatment at Penang General hospital who injured when the bus crashed into a flyover early morning near the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone.
Image via The Star Online.Factory worker Ade Sofitri, 28, said she panicked when she heard the driver screaming the bus could not stop. She said she was having a nap when the screams woke her up before everything happened all at once.
"I cannot really remember what happened as I knocked my head against the seat in front of me," said Ade after receiving treatment with minor injuries.
Meanwhile, Penang Hospital director Dr M. Sukumar said two victims were in critical condition, while seven others were seriously injured but stable. “We have discharged 14 others after receiving outpatient treatment while 37 others sustained light injuries,” he said in a statement today.
One passenger Julita Nababan, who was glued to her handphone when she heard the bus driver yelling to everyone to duck, described the accident as a horrifying experience
Asoghan, who is being praised, said: "Luckily no one died"
Recounting the incident: Traffic police officers talking to Asoghan (centre) at the Penang General Hospital after the crash near the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone.
Image via The Star Online.Penang police chief Senior Deputy Comm Datuk Wira Abdul Rahim Hanafi said the case was being investigated under the Road Transport Act for reckless driving.
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