Saturday, July 04, 2009

APIIT Bus Collision at Bukit Jalil LRT Station

See the photos and the text report is below.

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On the afternoon of 3 July there was a severe collision involving the APIIT UCTI bus and a taxi. The bus in question was assigned LRT rounds on the day, and it was on its way to its destination when the collision took place. From several sources I have compiled this appropriately detailed report.

The bus carrying students to the LRT station from the college was on Lebuhraya Shah Alam, an expressway, about to turn into the Jalan Merah Cager, a busy junction due to there being a traffic signal. It was then that the bus driver realized that he couldn’t engage the breaks on the bus which was travelling fast but within limits.

According to accounts from several witnesses of the collision, the driver first used the pedal to brake, and that was when the brakes on the bus failed. Several people claimed that they saw sparks when the brakes were engaged, the sparks were issuing from the wheel arches of the bus, probably because the front left tire had exploded.

The driver however was determined to stop the bus and by this time he had already entered Jalan Merah Cager, barely keeping the bus steady on the corner as he tried, without prevail, to engage the hand break failing again to stop the bus.

At this point, further ahead, a taxi was cruising on the lane closest to the sidewalk, also driving his customer to the LRT station. Meanwhile the bus driver was now attempting to turn off the road, but given the speed, and no way to stop, he rammed the taxi in the rear and shattered the rear windscreen. The taxi was now moving sideways until it hit one of the pillars on the sidewalk, which supports the canopy. This made the taxi’s front end lurch to the left and ram into the other pillars of the canopy, which no longer stood shading the sidewalk, and instead crumpled to a heap on the side.

The bus however is a much heavier vehicle and so after it rammed into the taxi, it continued to advance right at the side walk at a 45 degree angle, at which point the front of the bus crashed right into the canopy at speed. As the canopy, which was made from tin, wrapped around the front, the bus had already gone completely across the sidewalk and that was when it finally came to a halt.

According the reports from witnesses, there was a woman in the taxi, who exit the taxi after the collision. She had suffered from cuts to her hands while coming out of the taxi due to the broken glass, and so she was bleeding. Reports also suggest that she was in shock when she emerged from the wreck. The students on the bus were all fine; apparently everyone was seated at the time of the crash which preventing them from being harmed in this unfortunate collision.

Credits to Sami,Sammie,Michael Lim,Saeid Hedari,Derek Ooi,Saeed (seebChe)

Below is the gif I made with the photos I took after they moved the bus so that it can be towed away.


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