Thursday September 25, 2008

Six injured in LRT accident

By ELIZABETH LOOI

KUALA LUMPUR: About 300 people escaped serious injuries in an accident involving two Light Rail Transit (LRT) trains at 6.30pm at the Bukit Jalil station.

Cheras district police chief ACP Ahmad Amir Mohd Hashim said a coach from Sungai Besi stopped suddenly about 200m from the train station before it was rammed into by another train from the rear on the same track.

Help is here: (Top pic) An injured passenger being attended to by medical workers at the Bukit Jalil LRT station in Seri Petaling yesterday after the accident (below pic).

RapidKL executive Suffian Baharuddin confirmed that six passengers were slightly injured. He also said the train services would resume as normal today.

RapidKL communications division general manager Ebi Azly Abdullah said the company would bear the medical costs for the injured passengers.

Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat, who visited the accident site and one of the injured passengers at the hospital later at night, said he would wait for the reports from investigations into the incident.

“I’m relieved to see that the injured passengers were given immediate attention and treatment as they were immediately brought to the hospital,” he said.

Road traffic safety officer R. Perumal, 48, who was in the moving train, said that everyone fell off their seats on impact.

“Everybody started panicking and some contacted their loved ones on their handphones,” said Perumal, who suffered a whiplash when he hit against handle bars.

Airline customer service officer Andrews Pillai, 42, who was trapped along with the other passengers for about 20 minutes in the stationary train, pushed the emergency door lever to get out.

“A few men and myself helped other passengers out and we walked along the tracks back to the Bukit Jalil station,” he said.

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