Call for rail guards after fatal accident

KOTA KINABALU: The relevant authority has been urged to put up proper rail guards beside monsoon drains along the major roads in and around the state capital.

Social activist cum environmentalist, Dr C Y Vun, made the call yesterday, following the latest fatal case involving a young couple, who were killed when their Toyota Rav4 vehicle plunged into a monsoon drain along Lintas Road, near Taman Kendara, here on Saturday morning.

“It is disheartening to see that there were no rail guards being put up beside the monsoon drain where the accident occurred,” he lamented, adding that several similar accidents had also occurred in and around the state capital in the past.

The car driver, Liu Teck Soon, 22, from Penampang and his front seat passenger, Joan Chai Ling, 19, from Likas, died instantly in the 12.30 am incident on July 20.

Initial police investigations revealed that the driver had accelerated his vehicle, causing it to move forward at high speed and plunging into the drain. It took firefighters around 20 minutes to extricate the bodies of the two victims.

Vun pointed out that there were no rail guards erected at the site when the victims’ car plunged into the monsoon drain.

“It is crucial to put up rail guards beside the monsoon drains to serve as a warning of danger for motorists and other road users, especially at night,” he said.

According to Vun, the place where the couple’s car plunged into the monsoon drain did not have any rail guards, as can be seen in this picture.