MIRI: Two men died on the spot after their car with three female passengers was involved in a head-on collision with an 11-tonne lorry at KM27, Jalan Miri-Bintulu yesterday morning.
Helen being comforted by one of her relatives.
Police personnel and members of the public carrying Sibat’s body after firemen managed to remove it from the wreckage.
The car underneath the lorry after the mishap.
Miri deputy police chief Supt Stanley Jonathan Ringgit is also seen at the scene with the firemen helping the team to remove all the victims.
The accident is believed to have occurred around 11am, at a sharp downhill bend on the road.
The two dead were identified as Sibat Janggat, 64, who was the driver and Richmond Pesera Una, 20, who sat next to the driver in front. The survivors have been identified as Sarina Jubang, Angela Tambip and Senik Sambau, who were all in the back seat.
All victims, excluding Richmond (from Rumah Empaga, Bakong), came from Rumah Baie Janggat, Bakong.
It took Miri firemen four hours to extricate all the victims from the wreckage, as the car was under the lorry’s front part due to the impact. They were immediately sent to Miri hospital.
Eye-witnesses said the lorry, ferrying quarry stones, earlier on overtook a tow truck before colliding head-on with the car which was coming from the opposite direction.
According to Sibat’s daughter, Helen Mona, who was met at the scene yesterday, her father was heading to their longhouse from Miri with the four passengers that morning.
“He did call me up around 10.30am, saying that he was on his way back to Bakong sending our village folks back to the longhouse after seeing a doctor at a private clinic here (in the city centre),” said the teary Helen. She added that her dad acted bizarre during their conversation via the phone.
“He seemed to be so in a hurry…he mentioned he wanted to see me before leaving Miri for Bakong… but I couldn’t as I was still feeling sleepy that morning,… he seemed to be so excited to withdraw some cash from the bank which was sent by my elder brother as he wanted to use the money to purchase some plywood for renovation works to our ‘bilik’ (unit) at the longhouse,” explained Helen.
Helen added that her dad frequently travelled from Bakong to Miri to sell jungle produce at Tamu Muhibbah, Miri.
Helen was accompanied by her husband, Azlan Abdul Wahab, a Melanau, who went to the scene after being told by her cousin of the accident. Both Helen and her husband are working at a bakery shop in Morsjaya.
Meanwhile, Azlan told The Borneo Post that the night before the accident he had a weird dream, in which he saw a group of people fighting near his worker’s quarters in Morsjaya.
“Several people were bleeding during the fight…then I woke up,” he said.
The accident stalled hundreds of lorries and other vehicles, including a funeral procession, for about three km.
Traffic flow only resumed at 2.45pm after police completed their investigation on the last body extricated with the help of an excavator and two lorries.
Sources said three accidents occurred on that stretch of the road yesterday morning.