Part-time model grateful to be alive

Woman escaped bus tragedy with minor injuries

GEORGE TOWN: Part-time model Atikah Juliana Ishak (pic) is grateful to have escaped the bus crash that killed eight women with only minor injuries.

She was one of 57 passengers involved in the pre-dawn accident on Tuesday, in which two factory buses collided at the 147th kilometre of the North-South Expressway near the Juru toll plaza.

Atikah, who received seven stitches to her forehead and two to her chin, said she had just dozed off when the crash happened.

“My head still hurts. The hospital has given me medication to ease the pain and although it makes me sleepy, I don’t think I will be able to sleep soundly,” she said yesterday.

Atikah, a factory worker who is to marry next May, said she had been modelling local clothing and make-up for the past two years.

“I am not worried that the scar on my face will affect my modelling, as it is just something I do for fun. I am just grateful to be alive,” she said.

Atikah, who lives in Kuala Kurau, Perak, with her widowed mother and two brothers, is grateful for the kind messages that have poured in from her thousands of followers on various social media platforms.

“It is nice of them to show concern and check up on me. I am grateful for the kind words and prayers, but I will be resting for a while and will not spend too much time online,” she added.

Thirty victims are still warded in four hospitals, with five of them in critical condition.

At the Seberang Jaya Hospital mortuary, Indonesia’s Penang deputy consul-general Osrinikita Zubhana said post-mortems on the seven Indonesian women who died had been completed and the bodies would be flown back starting today.

Four of them were from North Sumatra and one each from Aceh, Central Java and East Java.

The dead have been identified as Indonesians Faridah Mohamad, 18; Sartika Pasaribu, 19; Wami Windasih, 19; Yeni, 20; Serlia, 21; Tumangger Resni, 22; and Titik Katinengsih, 23; and Malaysian Noriah Kasa, 40, from Bagan Serai, Perak.

Faridah’s husband Alam Shah, 30, who works in Kuala Lumpur as a construction worker, said he found out about the accident at about 4pm on Tuesday through Facebook.

“I immediately rushed to Penang with my wife’s sister Norazizah.

“We will be accompanying the body back to Indonesia for burial,” he said when met at the mortuary.