Stall owner admits failing to report seeing car smashed by Menara Umno concrete mast

The scene of the tragedy which occured on Jalan Macalister on June 13. - November 8, 2013.A man, who saw the Menara Umno lightning arrestor and concrete mast crashing 21 floors onto a passing car on Jalan Macalister on June 13, told the Commission of Inquiry into the incident that he did not lodge a police report immediately on what he had witnessed.

Mah Chin Teong, 51, who was selling durians at a stall across the road opposite the building, said he saw everything - from the lightning arrestor and concrete mast tilting towards the road on top of the building under strong winds that evening to the structures crashing to the ground and killing two people.

He said he saw the arrestor hitting the windshield of a passing car before the concrete mast fell directly on the vehicle just seconds later, sending it into the ground.

"The crash happened very fast like in a count of three and made a big hole in the middle of the road as it pushed the car in. I saw water gushing out of it. When I went closer to the hole, I could no longer see the car," he told the three-men commission chaired by Datuk Yeo Yang Poh today at the Penang High Court.

Mah said he remembered seeing the car, which he thought was either a Toyota Vios or Honda City approaching in the freak storm, and knew it was a "goner".

A few minutes later, more debris fell from the building, he said, and crashed onto a lorry carrying empty gas canisters.

He said he soon began to pack up and close his stall and was approached by a man, who informed him that he was a policeman.

"He was in plain clothes and just said he was with the police. He had been taking shelter and asked me if there were any victims. I told him what I saw happened to the car," he said.

Mah (pic) said he left the scene but returned again later between 9pm and 10pm when Jalan Macalister was partially sealed off by the authorities.

He said he told a policeman on the fringes of the sealed area what happened to the car that was hit as he observed workers busy clearing the debris.

Answering Yeo and conducting officer N. Mureli's questions, he said the workers did not seem to be looking for the smashed car but was cutting up the fallen structure to clear it away.

He said he left at around midnight and returned to his stall the next morning, adding that by that time some work was in progress to repair the damages at the scene.

Asked if he lodged a police report, he said he did not although some people had suggested he should do so.

It was only after a piece of the smashed car was recovered at the scene that he gave a statement to the police, he said but added that he could not remember clearly what day it was as he was nervous.

Yeo also asked him if he had seen the police going around the area asking people if they saw what happened, Mah said nobody asked him except for reporters, like the ones who put him on the NTV7 news.

"There were people who did not believe what had happened since the car could not be seen in the hole," he said.

Two men - Jahir Hussain Sulaiman, 46, and hawker Lim Chin Aik, 44 - were killed in the incident when the structures fell from the tower.

Jahir was in the lorry, which was blocked from making a turn to get off Jalan Macalister by other vehicles, while Lim was in the Honda City that was hit and pushed into the ground by the fallen concrete. Lim's body is still unrecovered until today.

The inquiry continues.