GEORGE TOWN: Two men died in separate road crashes in Penang within hours of each other, the first involving a Rapid Penang bus in Bayan Baru and the second a car that left the road near Straits Quay.
The first crash happened at 11.38pm on Tuesday (3 Nov) along Jalan Mayang Pasir, outside Sunshine Square 1, when a motorcycle collided with the bus. Firefighters reached the scene five minutes after the emergency call, The Star reported.
A 29-year-old motorcyclist and his 23-year-old female pillion rider were both trapped in the wreckage. The woman was freed at 11.55pm and taken to Penang Hospital by a community ambulance after receiving initial treatment at the scene. The rider, Goy Wee Sherng, was freed at 12.30am but pronounced dead at the scene by Malaysian Red Crescent Society paramedics, according to NST, which cited the Penang Fire and Rescue Department. Eight firefighters from the Bayan Baru station handled the operation.
The bus was running Rapid Penang route 401E from the Weld Quay bus terminal towards Balik Pulau and carried eight passengers. It was travelling from Jalan Mahsuri into Jalan Mayang Pasir when the collision happened, according to the operator, which said it would give the authorities its full cooperation and extended its condolences to the rider’s family, Sinar Harian noted.
The rescue operation was brought under control at 12.26am and closed at 12.42am. The rider’s body was handed to the police for further action.
Hours later, at 6.35am on Wednesday (4 Nov), six firefighters from the Bagan Jermal station were sent to Seri Tanjung Pinang near Straits Quay in Tanjung Tokong, where a car had skidded and crashed. The driver, a man in his 30s, was found pinned and unconscious in his seat. Crews freed him at 6.55am, and Health Ministry medical officers confirmed he had died at the scene.
He had not been identified when the statement was issued. His body was handed to the police for further action, as was the rider’s.
Jalan Mayang Pasir is a busy commercial artery running through Bayan Baru, past shopping malls, shoplots and food outlets, and carries a steady flow of cars, motorcycles and public buses into the night. Seri Tanjung Pinang, the coastal road serving the Tanjung Tokong waterfront, links the Straits Quay marina area to the housing estates further north and is lit but lightly used in the early morning.
Both crashes came within seven hours of each other and both ended with the same sequence for rescuers: a trapped occupant, a cutting operation, and a death confirmed at the roadside before the body could be moved. The Bayan Baru crew worked for just over an hour on the first scene. The Bagan Jermal crew had the second driver out within 20 minutes of the call.
Penang’s fire and rescue teams respond to road crashes alongside the police and the Health Ministry’s ambulance service, and are usually the first to reach an occupant pinned inside a vehicle. Their statements, issued within hours of each incident, remain the fullest public account of what happened in both cases.
