Blood, tears, and broken glass: rescuers in the aftermath

 

Helping hands from Bomba for a victim of the RapidKL train crash in Kuala Lumpur this evening.

PETALING JAYA: Blood, glass, and tears. That was the scene confronting “Wan” from the Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department when he got into a coach at the RapidKL train crash site this evening.

“Many were injured, some were crying, it was bad,” he said.

Wan (not his real name) was among the many first responders at the scene after two LRT trains collided head-on between the KLCC and Kampung Baru stations. A total of 233 people were hurt in the incident, including 47 who were seriously injured.

Speaking to FMT, Wan said the authorities arrived on location less than 10 minutes after receiving the distress call.

“We had to react fast to stabilise the victims. Many were crying and confused, so we had to reassure them that everything will be all right.

“We told them ‘you will be fine, keep calm’, because they were in shock, they were traumatised.”

Wan said they evacuated those who could walk; those that could not were put on a stretcher and taken to ambulances outside the LRT station.

Many could not walk on their own and had to be supported. Some suffered broken bones.

He said although this was the first time two LRT trains had collided, rescue crews had been trained for such situations.

“Every year, the Fire and Rescue Department takes part in an inter-agency exercise for accidents involving trains, this includes collisions, so we were prepared,” he said.

The authorities managed to evacuate all the 213 victims in under an hour.

Rescue operations were made more challenging because of the narrow pathway from the trains, which were in a tunnel, to the nearest station 150 metres away.

Police confirmed earlier this evening that the two travelling trains had collided head-on while travelling along the Kelana Jaya line.

Dang Wangi police chief Mohamad Zainal Abdullah said a driverless passenger train had collided with an empty manually-driven train travelling from Kampung Baru towards KLCC at 8.45pm.

Transport minister Wee Ka Siong said a task force would be set up to investigate the accident, with the results expected in two weeks. - FMT