The detached wheel as captured by a passing motorist's dashcam. Pic courtesy of Puspakom.
ALOR GAJAH: Police have started combing landfills in Segamat and other potential sites in Tangkak, Johor, in search of the missing front wheel of the trailer that caused the fatal Ayer Keroh crash on Dec 23.
Alor Gajah OCPD Supt Ashari Abu Samah said his men are intensifying the search after the detached wheel was not sent for checks at the Computerised Vehicle Inspection Center (Puspakom).
"We have met the officer in charge of Propel, (the company in charge of expressway maintenance) at the PLUS Malaysia Bhd (PLUS) office in Tangkak, Johor on the matter.
"We were given the details of the Propel truck driver responsible for transporting the cleared debris in the aftermath of the crash and his statement will be recorded," he said on Sat (Jan 4)
Supt Ashari said two statements, one from the Propel subcontractor's lorry driver and another driver of the Roll-On Roll-Off (RoRo) bin truck that probably had transported the debris to the landfill in Segamat had been recorded.
He said the final statement from the Propel truck driver who was at the site of the crash is crucial in completing the mission to recover the missing wheel.
"My men have started searching for the wheel at these two landfills in Johor today (Jan 4)," he said.
Supt Ashari said the wheel is an important element in completing the investigation into the crash at KM204 of the North-South Expressway on Dec 23 that claimed seven lives, including five members of a family, and injured 33 others.
Supt Ashari said his men failed to recover the wheel at the scene of the accident on Dec 23.
He said police had no information regarding the truck’s wheel at the initial stage until it went viral from the dashboard of the witness’s car during the incident.
Supt Ashari said the statement from the 31-year-old truck driver also confirmed that the wheel had detached and was in the middle of the expressway at the time of the incident.
On Jan 2, Puspakom chief executive officer Mahmood Razak Bahman said his team has submitted its findings on the recent deadly crash in Melaka to Miros (Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research) for further action, but the inspection remains incomplete as the detached lorry wheel could not be located.
