KUCHING: It was a heart-stopping moment for 13 passengers of a bus in a pre-dawn collision with a car yesterday, which miraculously left no one injured as the single-decker coach toppled over.
The scene at Mile 9 Kuching-Serian Road when the Kuching-bound bus from Bintulu crash landed on its side after a collision with a car during pre-dawn.
The accident occurred at Mile 9 Kuching-Serian Road around 5.30am when the Kuching-bound bus from Bintulu slammed into the side of a Proton Exora after its driver made a sudden exit out of a junction.
The impact spun the bus around and crash landed on its side, but fortunately did not result in any injuries to either its driver or all 13 passengers.
Even the driver of the car, a soldier, who however required the assistance of firemen to extricate him from his wrecked Exora,was lucky to escape injury.
Five bus passengers, aged between 21 and 56, were later taken to the Sarawak General Hospital for a precautionary checkup after experiencing shortness-of-breath and other minor complaints.
The pre-dawn accident caused a traffic congestion lasting over two hours as motorists commuting to work had to make do with the dual-lane road being reduced to a single lane.
In a separate accident, a 55-year-old man who was flung out of his car in a road accident at Mile 29 Kuching-Serian Road on Thursday succumbed to his injuries on the same night.
The victim, who suffered serious head injuries, passed away at the hospital without regaining consciousness following the 5pm crash.
He was said to bemaking his way to the city from Tebedu when his Proton Wira went out of control and overturned, causing him to be flung out of the vehicle.