KLUANG: A policeman was killed in a road crash involving five vehicles at Kilometre 67.1 of the North South Expressway (north bound) here last night.
Kluang district police chief ACP Mohd Abduh Ismail said Corporal Shahirul Shahzal Md Hussein, 53, of the Batu Pahat district police headquarters, died at the scene in the 8.30 pm crash.
He said Shahirul Shahzal was at the wheel of a Perodua Myvi, and travelling to Batu Pahat, from Johor Bahru, with three colleagues and a civilian as passengers, when he failed to apply the brake in time and crashed into a lorry which stopped abruptly in front of his car.
The three other policemen in the car, identified as Inspector Azman Payung, 36; Sergeant Kamarolzaman Sapian, 30; and Constable Nur Muhammad Nasarudin, 28, and the civilian, were admitted to hospital for treatment, he said in a statement today.
The crash involved 12 other casualties, comprising a motorcyclist, the drivers of two other cars and their three passengers, a lorry driver and the lorry attendant in the crash, he said, adding that they were not seriously injured.
Mohd Abduh said the crash occurred after the motorcyclist skidded and fell of his machine when attempting to avoid running over something on the road, but he managed to get up and pushed his motorcycle to the side of the road.
However, a car travelling behind the motorcycle stopped abruptly, causing the driver of a lorry trailing behind to also apply an emergency brake stop, leading to the Perodua Myvi to crash into it , before another car crash into its (Perodua Myvi) rear.
Meanwhile, Renggam fire and rescue station head Asyraf Nur Mohd Yusoff, in a statement, said 14 firefighters from the Renggam and Ayer Hitam stations rushed to the scene and found two victims trapped in the Perodua Myvi car.
One of them died at the scene and the body was handed over to the police, while the injured were sent to the Sultanah Nora Ismail Hospital in Batu Pahat for treatment. – Bernama
