Faulty bus brakes leave 40 injured after crash

Driver shouts at workers to duck for cover as bus approaches, then crashed into a flyer under construction.

BAYAN LEPAS: 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 on Tuesday morning.

The bus was ferrying 43 workers to their factory in the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone (FIZ) for their morning shift duty when the crash took place just before 6am.

It is learnt that the impact of the crash was so powerful that some workers were thrown out of the bus to the roadside in the accident.

Firemen from Bayan Baru fire and rescue station took an hour to rescue passengers, who were trapped in their bus seats, to safety.

The bus driver and workers, who sustained injuries including 12 with serious injuries, sought treatment at Penang Hospital.

Bus driver D Ashogan blamed dysfunctional brakes for the accident.

He said he realised that vehicle’s brakes were not functioning when he arrived at a traffic light junction near the second bridge, Jambatan Sultan Abdul Halim Mua’dzam Shah.

He could not halt the bus as the vehicle moved ahead slowly along a closed stretch of the coastal road.

The stretch had been closed for over a year for construction works to build a flyover linked to the second bridge.

“I realised the dysfunctional brakes when I could not stop the bus.

“As I saw the under-construction flyover ahead, I shouted to the workers to duck for cover.

“The bus then moved slowly before hitting it.

“I had no choice. I had to find an alternate way to stop the bus. Luckily no one died,” said Ashogan.