Three drown in bid to avoid hitting motorcyclist

January 28, 2011

PEKAN, Jan 28 Three people in a car ended in a watery grave when their vehicle swerved to avoid running over a teenage motorcyclist who had fallen on the ground.As the car missed hitting the injured victim by inches, it however skidded and plunged into a canal at the 31km Jalan Pekan-Paloh Hinai this morning.The car driver and an elderly couple drowned in the 8am crash.They were identified as Mahrof Mat Sham, 73, his Indonesian wife Karinah, 55, and her 36-year-old nephew Mahmmud.The bodies were sent to the Pekan Hospital.Earlier, passers-by and Civil Defence Department personnel tried in vain to rescue the victims.Pekan police chief Supt Yahaya Othman said the crash occurred when Mahmmud, who was driving the car, tried to swerve the vehicle to avoid running over a teenage motorcyclist who had fallen on the ground.The car then skidded and plunged into the canal.The teenager was riding his motorcycle from Pekan to Paloh Hinai when he attempted to overtake a tractor. However, he lost control of his machine and fell on the ground, said Yahaya.Meanwhile, in KUALA LUMPUR, eight fatalities were reported on the first day of the 23rd nationwide Ops Sikap traffic police operation which started yesterday, in conjunction with Chinese New Year celebrations.According to a statement from the Bukit Aman police headquarters today, the victims comprised five motorists, a van driver, a motorcyclist and a pedestrian.City roads registered the highest number of accidents with 489 cases, followed by federal roads (263), state roads (162), expressways (118) and other roads (63).A total of 12,156 summonses were also issued to traffic offenders since the operation began yesterday.Ops Sikap will end on February 10. Bernama