PRE CAMERON HIGHLANDS POSTING

Date : 3 October 2009
Place : NKVE Highway (exit to Behrang/Slim River)

Depart from Sunway Mentari with Peter Goh and Alice Chi heading towards Cameron Highlands for the Newton-JW 12KM Run scheduled on 4 October 2009. I was supposed to travel up the day before but was forced to stay back due to work commitment. We decided not to stop for lunch along the highway. Should be arriving at Brinchang before 2pm via Simpang Pulai.

In the car, we chatted jovially and I intend to take them for evening tea at Bharat Tea house after checking in all the runners. As our car approached the exit to Behrang, something caught our eyes. A black Proton Aeroback jolted in the middle of the road on the opposite direction. It was barely 100 meter infront of us. Like the lightning, it swirled and hit the centre divider then plunged in the air. I was stunt . . . . . I guess all three of us were in panic mode. Our car was just parallel and less than 50 meters away. What if it plunge across the road and landed right on top of our car?

Then it hit hard on the rail and plunged into the air about 5 meters, then spinned twice back onto the middle of the same road and hit the front of a Kancil which just passed by and ..... 'BOOM'! It was a real loud explosion! Peter stopped the car 200 meters away. We were still in a shocked. We turned around and saw nothing. Luckily there wasn't any fast travelling heavy vehicle. Most of the cars that came from behind them stopped on time to avoid a pile-up.

A middle aged chinese man alighted from his motorbike followed by two other chinese middle aged men. All other motorists just slowed down and watched. Peter and I decided to come out and investigate as we didn't see any one coming out. We disregard the busy road and finally managed to cross over. By then the other 2 men also were at the side of the car. We pulled out a young lady from the passenger seats and slowly led the other middle aged woman out from the driver's seat. The driver was the mother and her teenage daughter, a college student travelling from Cameron Highlands (we assumed) heading towards Kuala Lumpur. This was her first long distance drive.

The driver (mother) walked out of the wrecked. Amazingly, she only suffered minor hip injury.

We can never imagine both survive this accident. God must be great. We feel so blessed for being given the 2nd chance. We were just a second away between life and death . . . . it was that near.

The Kancil which was right behind the black Proton Aeroback before the incident. Both elderly malay couple were just inches away. Just imagine if they were hit right from the top! What happened within that 1 minutes seems like a Hollywood high speed drama but the only difference is - this is REAL.

She was semi concious with a (feasible) broken arm. We are not sure how bad is her internal injury. We dare not administered any form of help on her. In less than 10 minutes, the local police traffic and highway patrol guards arrived. We were advised not to give her any water.

Both Peter, a middle aged local man, 2 motorists and myself braved the highway again to round up their belongings. Gosh . . . just 2 ladies and there were about 8 travelling bags, bags of vegetables, fruits, plants and other groceries - all over the road. The uncle in that red Kancil had called on the ambulance but its more than 40 minutes and there wasn't any sight of it. What if she suffered a stroke or had internal bleeding? 40 minutes for medical aids to arrive?

The back seat

The front wheel was plunged to the road boulder about 20 meters away

Peter (in Red shirt) gave a helping hand.

Finally she was whisked to the Slim River hospital.

Our job just didn't stop here. We were 'entrusted' to take care of their belonging by the mother who has to accompany her daughter to the hospital. We searched the road again with the local guy and rounded up all their belongings. Then kept in touch with her other daughter who was on her way from Petaling Jaya.

By now, we had been stranded here for almost 2 hours! We called on her daughter and was told that she can only be at the accident scene to picked up the belongings in another 45 minutes! We are already way too behind time. 40 people are waiting for us in Cameron Highlands and 45 minutes more! Luckily the local guy agreed to stay on and so we decided to continue our journey.

We made a quick stop at Tapah for a cup of hot tea and to freshen up ourselves. As we sat down, suddenly we realised that how much we had endangered ourselves while roaming the highway to secure the belongings of the victims.

We are truly greatful that God had taken good care of us throughout the entire journey. A day later I received a TQ note via sms from the sister. She is in good health!