A factory bus driver was injured after the vehicle crashed through a road divider and plunged into a deep drain near the Jalan Tun Dr Awang roundabout in George Town on Monday (14 September) evening.
Penang Fire and Rescue Department operations assistant director John Sagun Francis said firefighters arrived at the scene near Bulatan Bayan Baru at 6.11pm after receiving an emergency call at 6.01pm, NST reported.
A team of nine firefighters from the Bayan Baru fire station, equipped with full personal protective equipment, was dispatched to the location about four kilometres from the station. They arrived within 10 minutes of the initial call.
“When the team arrived, they found a worker bus had crashed into the drain. The commander immediately conducted a situation assessment to launch the rescue process. At the time of the incident, there were no passengers in the bus,” Harian Metro quoted John as saying.
He said the 49-year-old driver was trapped in the bus when firefighters reached the scene. The vehicle had plunged nose-first into a concrete drain estimated to be about 10 feet deep, leaving the driver pinned between the damaged structure of the bus.
“The victim was trapped inside the bus and was successfully extricated,” he said, as reported by NST. The rescue team carried out cutting and stretching operations to free the driver from the mangled vehicle.
He was pulled out safely at 6.29pm and handed over to a Community Ambulance Sungai Ara team for initial treatment before being rushed to Penang Hospital for further care.
John said the operation, which also received assistance from the Royal Malaysia Police and a fire rescue tender as well as an emergency medical response service team from the Bayan Baru station, was fully concluded at 6.37pm.
According to NST, the incident occurred during the evening peak hour when the bus, believed to be travelling from Queensbay towards Relau, crashed into the divider while negotiating the roundabout before veering into the drain. Video footage of the aftermath showed the blue bus propped at a steep angle inside the concrete channel with its front end submerged.
No cause of the crash has been confirmed. Investigations are ongoing.
