Y
Yuan Shao
Guest
Friday August 20, 2010
Still alive after fire and plunge
By SARBAN SINGH
[email protected]
SEREMBAN: A man was engulfed in flames after he was apparently set ablaze in his car – and then fell 40m from a bridge. Yet, he survived to tell his story. Goh Peng Hin, 39, a licensed money lender from Bahau, was on his way here when he stopped at a bridge along Jalan Bukit Putus to relieve himself at about 1pm yesterday.
According to a passing motorist, who stopped to assist in the rescue operations, Goh had told him that a motorcyclist had approached him on the pretext of asking for a cigarette.
Fiery end: There was little left of Goh’s car after it caught fire and rolled down the road into a ditch.
“He gave the man a cigarette and was about to drive off when the man threw a flammable liquid, believed to be petrol, into the car and sped off. “The interior of the car immediately caught fire forcing the victim, whose upper body was also in flames to get out,” he said.
He said Goh, who had no clue that the bridge was 40m high, may have jumped thinking there was a river beneath. His fall was broken by the vegetation under the bridge. There were, however, no eye witnesses to the incident. Another motorist Mohd Zaidi Aziz, 26, who was heading towards Kuala Pilah said he called the Fire and Rescue Department upon seeing Goh’s Proton Wira ablaze.
Fire and Rescue Department personnel bringing Goh out of the ravine he plunged into after his upper body was set ablaze.
He added there were several explosions as the car burned. Fire and Rescue Department personnel arrived within minutes but there was nothing much left of the car, which by then had rolled down the road into a ditch. Senawang Fire and Rescue Depart_ment head Ariffin Esa said they received an emergency call at 1.05pm and that his men were surprised when no one came forward to claim ownership of the car.
They were then shocked to hear cries for help several metres away. “Upon checking, we saw a man with burns all over his body. We brought him up on a stretcher before rushing him to the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital in an ambulance,” he said adding that Goh told his officers that he was alone in the car when the car caught fire.
He said the cause of the fire had yet to be established. Seremban OCPD ACP Saiful Azly Kamaruddin confirmed the incident, adding that Goh’s condition was stable. “We will investigate the victim’s claims and if what he said is true, we will classify the case as attempted murder,” he said.
