Driver killed in train crash
SEREMBAN: The driver of a Singapore-bound Ekspres Rakyat train was killed when the locomotive derailed near here yesterday.
Twelve of the train’s 210 passengers were injured in the 3.35pm incident, which occurred near Rahang New Village next to the Seremban-Tampin trunk road.
The locomotive and the first coach of the train, which had 12 coaches, jumped the rails and landed upside down in the mud next to the tracks.
Accident site: Rescue personnel helping some of the passengers out of the derailed Ekspres Rakyat train on the Seremban-Tampin trunk road near Seremban Saturday. Two other coaches went off the tracks and rolled down a steep slope into Sungai Rahang, which flows parallel to the railway line. Three more coaches were also derailed.
The Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) train had just left Seremban station when the incident happened.
State Fire and Rescue Department chief Salleh Sarbini said the driver, Yahaya Osman, 40, died on the spot.
“We had to dig him out as he was buried in the mud,” he said.
Injured passenger: Civil Defence personnel wheeling a female train passenger into the Tunku Ja’afar Hospital. He said all passengers were evacuated within 30 minutes and those injured were sent to the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital (TJH) for treatment.
Passengers who were not injured were ferried on buses to the Tampin station 40km away where they boarded another train for Singapore.
Personnel from the Civil Defence Department, KTMB and motorists also helped out in the rescue work.
State police chief Datuk Osman Salleh said six of the 12 injured were Singaporeans.
Passenger evacuation: Some of the passengers leaving the crash site with their belongings. Passengers were later ferried on buses to the Tampin station where they boarded another train for Singapore. “One female passenger was admitted to the TJH for back and neck injuries,” he said, adding that the others were given outpatient treatment.
KTMB managing director Datuk Mohd Salleh Abdullah, who was also at the scene, said it was too early to establish the cause of the derailment.
“We will certainly conduct a thorough investigation,” he said, adding that the driver had been with KTM for more than 20 years.
Salleh said it would take more than 24 hours to clear the tracks for train services to resume.
“In the meantime, we will ferry the south-bound passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Gemas and vice versa,” he said.
The area where the accident happened was low-lying and had suffered flash floods during the recent wet spell.
Earthworks are also being carried out nearby for the expansion of the Seremban-Tampin stretch as well as the building of a flyover.
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I have always considered traveling by train is the safest way to get from one place to another without giving due concern for the longer travel time. However I need to rethink this opinion of mine in the light of the derailment of Ekspres Rakyat near Seremban on Saturday 2 May 2008. We were given to understand that "the driver of this south-bound train was killed while 12 passengers were injured in this incident" (Bernama).
A few questions crossed my mind:
- Since the commencement of rail transportation until now, how many occurrences of derailment? How about the losses of human lives and damage incurred resulting from these derailments?
- What were the causes of these derailments? It is important that the investigation reports must provdie some answers.
- Is preventive maintenance on rail tracks, etc put in place?
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