Penang woman crushed to death by container called mother with dying breath

"Mummy! It hurts so much!" the 21-year-old woman gasped into her handphone.

Her mother, 42-year-old Lim, frantically asked her daughter where she was but was met with silence.

"I sensed she had died," said Lim in a video interview recorded by China Press at Lee's wake on Thursday (Nov 14).

Lee died when the car she was driving was crushed by a container at the Jalan Bukit Tengah traffic light junction.

The container had toppled onto and crushed Lee's car when a lorry negotiating a sharp left turn went out of control.

Another car also hit by the container was not as badly damaged.

However, its driver Tan Chou Theng, 25, was seriously injured and rescued by passers-by and sent to the hospital.

Lee's mother said she had told her daughters to only text her for non-urgent matters.

"I told them that if they call, it means there is an emergency. So when Lee called, I felt fear," she said tearfully.

Lim said she immediately told her other daughter to drive her through the route Lee usually takes to work.

She said the call to Zi Rou went unanswered.

A man finally picked up the phone told her Zi Rou had been crushed in the accident and told her the location.

She said when she arrived at the location, she frantically begged bystanders to help rescue her daughter.

"But there it was impossible. The container was too heavy.

"She called at 9.24 am and my daughter had died by 9.30 am," she said.

At the Magistrate's Court on Thursday, Magistrate Mohd Harith Mohd Mazlan issued the remand order on the 51-year-old lorry driver for four days until Sunday (Nov 17).

Seberang Prai Tengah OCPD Asst Comm Helmi Aris had earlier stated that the driver was being investigated under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 for causing death by reckless driving, which is punishable with up to 10 years' jail, a fine of up to RM50,000 and disqualification of the driving licence for between 10 and 20 years.

Arnold Loh

The Star

Asia News Network