GEORGE TOWN: The five-day inquest to verify the death of hawker Lim Chin Aik, who was believed to have been buried at the site of a fallen lighting arrester here, commenced yesterday at the Coroners Court.
The first witness, Lim’s wife Lee Chai Song, 48, told the court that her husband had informed her that he was taking the Honda City car to pick up their youngest daughter as it looked like it might rain.
Lee said the two of them would usually reach home by about 7.30pm but on the day in question her husband never turned up, while a teacher sent their daughter home at 9.30pm.
“My daughter rang me twice from school to say her father wasn’t there yet. I told her to be patient as he may have been caught in traffic due to the heavy rain,” she told Coroner Khairul Anuar Abdul Halim.
She said when he was still not home the next day, the family searched for him along his usual route to the school along Jalan Macallum and Jalan Macalister and then at all the government and private hospitals.
Lim, 44, was feared to have been buried under the collapsed arrester on June 13, after a search-and-rescue team found pieces of his car at the site two days after the incident.
The mishap also claimed the life of foreign worker Jahir Sulaiman, 46, when the Menara Umno lightning arrestor collapsed on the lorry he was in with another worker.
The inquest would enable a death certificate to be issued by the Registration Department, apart from facilitating insurance claims by the victim’s family.
Khairul Anuar was assisted by deputy public prosecutor Suhaimi Ibrahim, while lawyer Gobind Singh Deo represented the victim’s family and lawyers Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor and Norliza Ali appeared for the owner of Menara UMNO building JKP Sdn Bhd. — Bernama