UiTM lecturer to testify on force of impact on Adib’s injuries

Deputy public prosecutors Faten Hadni Khairuddin (right) and Ashyraf Ashy’ari Kamaruzaman leaving the Shah Alam’s Coroner’s Court today.

SHAH ALAM: The Coroner’s Court here decided today that an expert in physics from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) will be called to testify in the inquest into the death of fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim.

Coroner Rofiah Mohamad said senior lecturer Amir Rafzi Ab Ghani, from UiTM Shah Alam’s mechanical engineering faculty, will testify as an independent witness on July 16 and 17.

“Make sure this witness is informed to be ready to assist the court in terms of (answering our) questions,” she told the conducting officers in the inquest.

This follows the testimony by UK-based forensic and pathology expert Dr Shahrom Abd Wahid who said the force from the door of the emergency medical rescue service (EMRS) van on the night of the Seafield temple riot on Nov 27 last year would not have been enough to cause the fractures on Adib’s back.

He told the inquest that Adib could have been pulled out of the front seat of the van and kicked, based on the injuries he sustained.

He also dismissed the possibility that Adib had sustained the fractures to his front right ribs in a fall on the road curb.

Deputy public prosecutor Faten Hadni Khairuddin told reporters after court that Shahrom’s theory was rebutted by forensic expert Dr Ahmad Hafizam Hasmi from Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL).

Hafizam said he found Shahrom’s calculations inaccurate and used two calculations based on different speeds at which the van was reversing, both of which revealed that the force was strong enough to cause the fractures.

“In supporting his (own) opinion, he (Shahrom) came up with his calculations using Newton’s formula in court, to show that the force was minimal,” Fatin said, referring to the theory that force = mass x acceleration.

“But when (the) HKL (witness) was recalled, he said that you could not disregard the mass of the vehicle that hit the victim, and he gave a different calculation.

“Now both experts admit that they are not experts in this field, so that’s the reason (for the court to call an expert in physics to see whether there was sufficient force to cause such an injury).”

Rofiah also said she would deliberate on the need for an independent pathologist to testify after Amir takes the stand.

If there is no need for this, Amir will be the last witness in the inquest, Faten said.

Adib, 24, was a member of the Subang Jaya Fire and Rescue Department’s EMRS. He died on Dec 17 last year at the National Heart Institute. -FMT