IPOH: A lorry driver narrowly escaped falling into a three-metre deep sinkhole that appeared in front of a school here yesterday.
Teoh Wooi Boon, 59, had the presence of mind to ease himself out of his lorry after he was wedged in the driver’s cabin when the left front wheel of the vehicle sank into a sinkhole in front of the Tarcisian Convent National School in Taman Lim here.
Teoh, of Taman Jaya, Bercham, said he was driving from Silibin to a clinic in Kampung Simee at 11.50am when a client telephoned him and he stopped the lorry by the roadside in front of the school to answer the call.
“As I was on the phone with my client, I heard a loud noise and the steering wheel struck my abdomen,” he said.
He said he eased himself out of the lorry and found that the left front wheel had sunk into a five-metre square sinkhole.
He was unhurt.
A check by Bernama revealed small holes in the school compound and cracks on the perimeter wall.
A spokesman of the Ipoh City Council did not rule out the possibility of piling work last Friday on a building in the school compound having caused the sinkhole and the cracks.
“A teacher noticed the small holes and cracks yesterday. More cracks have appeared since,” he said.
The spokesman said the council would meet with the geology unit to resolve the matter and that the holes would be filled up immediately.
“The piling work has been stopped temporarily and the stretch of road near the sinkhole would be closed to the public,” he said. — Bernama