Report: 19 Dead in Malaysia Bus Accident
Pastor Dale Morgan
Report: 19 Dead in Malaysia Bus Accident*
Monday August 13, 2007 3:46 AM
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - An express bus overturned Monday on
Malaysia's main highway, killing 19 passengers in one of the country's
worst traffic accidents, police and news reports said.
The 10 other people on the bus, including the driver, were hospitalized
with various injuries, said a police officer at the scene in Bukit
Gantang, about 125 miles north of Kuala Lumpur.
``The roof (of the bus) was totally ripped off,'' said the officer, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give
details to the media.
National news agency Bernama reported that seven of the injured were in
serious condition.
The accident occurred before dawn on the North-South Expressway, which
runs the length of the country from the Thai border in the north to the
southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula.
Bernama said the bus was going downhill when it hit the curb, careened
off the road and flipped over. Many passengers were flung out of the bus
through the roof and others died inside when the sides of the vehicle
were crushed on impact, Bernama said.
While Malaysia's notoriously bad motorists are often involved in
accidents, bus crashes are relatively rare and such serious ones with
mass casualties even more infrequent.