Twelve people were killed in a serious bus crash near Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Sunday night. The dead included many foreign workers and the Malaysian bus driver.
The accident happened at just after 11pm on April 8 when the employees were on their way to work at the MASkargo Complex on the company bus from a hostel in Nilai.
The bus was carrying 43 contract workers when it plunged into a 6.5-meter-deep monsoon drain on Jalan S8 Pekeliling, near their workplace in Sepang.
The incident claimed lives of 11 instantly, including the 43-year-old driver named S. Suresh, plus four identified as Indonesian women, two Nepali men, and five Bangladeshi men, the Nanyang Siang Pau (Malaysia) reported.
By Monday evening at 5.45pm, the death toll from the crash had risen to 12 when a fifth Indonesian woman succumbed to her injuries while receiving treatment at Serdang Hospital.
Some 17 people were reported to be injured or in a critical condition and remained in hospital, with seven being treated at Serdang Hospital, six in Putrajaya, two in Banting, one each in Kajang and Klang.
A preliminary investigation found that the bus was going the wrong way prior to the crash, as the driver had taken the wrong exit at a roundabout near the scene of the accident.
The driver’s brother-in-law said Suresh had worked as a bus driver for more than 10 years and had never had any accidents prior to Sunday. This was confirmed by the authorities, who said he had no prior record of traffic violations.
The Selangor police chief said the damaged vehicle would be sent to Puspakom for a full check as part of the investigation into the cause of the crash.