Saved by break in routine

KUALA LUMPUR: P. Saravathy is lucky to be alive today and it's all thanks to a slight change in routine.

The 70-year-old retired teach said she usually reads the newspaper in her living room every morning until 11am when she starts preparing lunch.

Yesterday, however, she went straight to the kitchen, only to rush right back out when tipper lorry laden with stones soil crashed into her double-storey corner lot home in Bangsar here and landed in her living room.

"I had just stepped into the kitchen and hadn't even decided what curry to make when suddenly there was a sound as if a bomb had exploded.

"I rushed to check and to my horror, I found a lorry parked in my hall," she said of the 10am incident when met at her house on Lorong Maarof 6.

She immediately contacted her husband, M. Balakrishnan, 70, a retired City Hall field officer, who rushed home from a meeting in the city.

Witnesses said they saw the lorry go over a road barrier and ram into the concrete garden wall of the detached house. It came to a stop after smashing through the side wall of the house.

The crash left the living room of a concrete, furniture and other strewn items.

Balakrishnan was grateful that his wife not hurt in the incident.

"Even the lorry driver was lucky as he escaped with the minor bruises," he added.

The lorry driver who only wanted to be known as Mulyani, 37, said he was transporting stones and earth from a construction site next to the shopping centre to be dumped.

"I was driving downhill when it happened. I tried to steer the vehicle to safety but failed," said Mulyani, who has been driving lorries for 14 years.

City traffic chief Assistant Commissioner Hamza Taib said police are investigating the accident under Section 43(1) of Road Transport Act 1987 for careless and inconsiderate driving.

Source: Star newspaper