Sea ordeal after fatal collision - For two hours, Lee Chun Hao struggled to stay afloat until he managed to find safety under the bridge

Sea ordeal after fatal collision
By ANN TAN
anntan@thestar.com.my

GEORGE TOWN: A contract worker survived the harrowing ordeal of being tossed out of a car like a rag doll and thrown 70m into the sea in a deadly accident on the Penang bridge.

The accident at 11.30pm on Sunday killed two of his friends and injured another two.

For two hours, Lee Chun Hao struggled to stay afloat until he managed to find safety under the bridge.

All the while, he did not know the fate of his two friends who died after their vehicle crashed into the guard rail.

An oncoming lorry laden with vegetables slammed into the vehicle as it spun in the middle of the bridge at the 2nd kilometre stretch.

Lee, 17, said he did not know how he was thrown out of the car and into the sea, “but by the time I hit the water, I was struggling to stay afloat and gasping for air.

“I told myself, I must survive. The determination kept me strong,” he said.

Lee had to swim against the strong current that passed between the giant concrete beams holding the bridge. He grabbed and held tightly onto the overgrown barnacles on one of the beams.

At 1.30am, a rescue boat picked him up.

Lee was warded at the Penang hospital for cuts on his head, face and hands.

“I am glad I am alive but at the same time I am sad that I lost two friends.”

In the accident, accessories salesman Teh Boh Yi, 19, and wife shop assistant Khor Lee Mui, 17, were killed.

They were married eight months ago and have a two-month-old baby girl.

Two others — Chiam Chee Wei, 17, and Teh Bee Bee, 20 — suffered serious injuries.

Chiam was warded at the hospital’s intensive care unit with head injuries while Bee Bee sustained a broken right leg.

Penang Traffic Operations chief Deputy Supt Abdul Rahim Md Din said Boh Yi was believed to be driving Chiam’s Nissan Livina from Butterworth to the island when he tried to switch lanes.

That was when he was believed to have lost control of the vehicle. The car hit the guard rails and spun, before colliding with an oncoming lorry.

Khor’s mother H’ng Cheng Gim, 42, was inconsolable at the mortuary yesterday.

Her family said that the couple had planned to stay over at their house in Tanah Liat in Bukit Mertajam when their friends called asking them out for a party at the Upper Penang Road.

Credits to and source taken from: http://thestar.com.my/