The MAss Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) yesterday denied that it withheld lodging a report to the authorities on the accident on its Jalan Semantan construction site on Friday, which left one worker dead and another seriously injured.
MRT Corp strategic communications director Amir Mahmood Razak told Sinar Harian that the contractor in charge of the Semantan site, Sunway Construction Sdn Bhd, had made an emergency call to 999 at 1.38pm on Friday. approximately 18 minutes after the incident occured.
“Records show that the engineer on duty during the incident, Syed Asyraf Syed Yahya, made the telephone call at 1.38 that afternoon,” Amir said.
“A team from the Public Defence Department arrived at the location about 15 minutes later and gave emergency assistance to the survivors. They also transported the victims to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital,” he added.
On Friday, assistant director of operations for the Fire and Rescue Department Azizan Ismail expressed his confusion as to why MRT Corp did not inform his department of the incident.
Azizan noted that the Fire and Rescue Department only received phone calls on the matter from members of the public at around 3pm that day.
In response, Amir asserts that MRT Corp and its on-site contractors complied fully with the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on such incidents, in which they are require to immediately report an accident to the authorities.
He added that all MRT Corp contractors have a Emergency Response Team (ERT) on site, who are well-versed in emergency protocol and SOP.
“Any and all incidents are to be reported immediately via e-mail and SMS to two internal teams.
“One team is designated to act on these incidents, while the other is tasked with conducting follow-up operations after the incident has been resolved,” Amir said.
During Friday’s accident, three Bangaldeshi construction workers were working on fabricating a steel cage when a cable over them broke and sent steel bars collapsing on them.
40-year old Rijaul Abdul Goni was killed on the spot, while another worker, Shanaullah, 37, suffered severe injuries. A third worker, Rozul Karim, escaped unharmed.
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