MORE PICS – STAR-LRT COACH DANGLING 25 m After HITTING Concrete EMBANKMENT at Last Stop in SENTUL TIMUR STATION; NO Passengers On Board

Findings of (LRT) ACCIDENT at SENTUL Overshooting End Station yesterday MUST Be Made Public URGED LEE LAM THYE; But Will Transport Minister Agree?
UPDATE1: October 29, 2006
The call by Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye is timely. All the time whenever an accident happened, there will be an outcry and especially the Transport Minister and interested parties will come out and showed their concerns and asked for reports, and it will be studied and kept secret. Why? Because there are serious legal implications; if the technical reports are unfavorable to the concerned party, libel actions can be taken to sue for damages and negligence. So who is protecting who?

Anyone remember the July 30 Sunday -
TRAGIC CRASH of a BUS at JURU – 11 KILLED; 9 Seriously INJURED; CHARTERED BUS Passengers MAINLY from CHURCH of our LADY – IPOH?

Go here for a recall;

It was the worst express highway accident; all the big guns were there. Puspakom was to determine the technical aspects of the bus; Samy Velly said the driver must be sleepy. And after that no one knows what happened except that the bus driver was charged with “reckless driving”. Other LRT cases and Monorail - wheel falling down. The local main stream media are not interested to follow up on most of these cases but only in the sensational news and pictures.

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Findings of (LRT) ACCIDENT at SENTUL Overshooting End Station yesterday MUST Be Made Public URGED LEE LAM THYE; But Will Transport Minister Agree?

Report On LRT Coach Overshooting Track Must Be Made Public – Niosh

October 28, 2006 12:28 PM KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 28 (Bernama) -- Findings of a Light Rail Transit (LRT) coach overshooting the end station yesterday must be made public, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh) says. Chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said since the incident was a major public concern, it was only fair the operator -- Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd (Rapid KL) -- conduct thorough investigations and disclose the findings. "This incident must be taken seriously. The causes and the people responsible must be identified. The question is whether it was a human error or a technical fault. "The company owes the public a full explanation as they have the right to know," he told Bernama Saturday.

ABOVE: A side view of the dangling LRT Coach: BELOW: A closed up of the coach
A coach of the Rapid KL Ampang LRT line dangled 25m above the ground after it overshot the end of the track at the Sentul Timur station. There was only a driver on board when the incident happened at 7.11am. The station was closed for 20 minutes until the coach was pulled back to safety using two heavy-duty cranes. However, LRT services were not affected. Lee said such an incident involving a public transport carrier used by thousands of passengers daily was not only a serious concern to the users but also to the people on the ground and the workers manning the LRT. Niosh, he said, had been advocating safety work culture to ensure zero workplace incidents which could be achieved only if employers adopted safe working procedures.

ABOVE: The fallen concrete embankment stop and BELOW; The nearby flat dwellers had a field day watch the action going on until the coach was lifted down by 2 cranes

"Merely making pledges about workplace safety is not enough, they must implement the safety work culture, especially the Occupational Safety and Health Management, to achieve the zero-accident target," he said. He urged public transport operators to give priority to safety aspects as a large number of Malaysians still relied on public transport to move around.

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Was the driver sleeping and not paying attention? Is it failure of the braking mechanism? Another “technical hitch” the favorite term used by Rapid KL the operator of this LRT? They should also invoke Murphy’s law which simply states that “if something is going to happen, it will happen” one of these days. And as usual the Transport Minister will come out with some comments to demand a “report” - sometime with a generous deadline of 4 weeks and the cycle goes on.

Operating a high tech LRT is no joke and requires constant maintenance and supervision of all it critical facilities to ensure safety for all it commuters. The festive break could be a factor as many essential staff might be away and its operation is running on “auto computer mode” with bare-bone supervision.

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Was the driver sleeping and not paying attention? Is it failure of the braking mechanism? Another “technical hitch” the favorite term used by Rapid KL the operator of this LRT? They should also invoke Murphy’s law which simply states that “if something is going to happen, it will happen” one of these days. And as usual the Transport Minister will come out with some comments to demand a “report” - sometime with a generous deadline of 4 weeks and the cycle goes on.

Operating a high tech LRT is no joke and requires constant maintenance and supervision of all it critical facilities to ensure safety for all it commuters. The festive break could be a factor as many essential staff might be away and its operation is running on “auto computer mode” with bare-bone supervision.

ABOVE: The LRT Coach dangling at the end of the line BELOW: Close up of its undercarriage

Star-LRT Coach Overshoots Track; October 27, 2006 14:09 PM

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 (Bernama) -- One of the Star-LRT coaches overshot the concrete embankment and dangled almost 25 metres above ground level as the train pulled up at the last stop at the Sentul Timur station here early this morning.

ABOVE: The mishap attracted quite a crowd and BELOW; The Batu MP came and have a "look-see"

Batu MP, Ng Lip Hong” There were no injuries. The residents use the Star-LRT and we hope one day the services would be extended to other areas so that we have a better traffic system in this area”

There were no passengers in the six coaches when the incident occurred at 7.11am. Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd corporate communications division senior manager Katherine Chew, when met at the scene, said the city's Star-LRT services were not affected.

ABOVE: The dangling coach was removed by 2 cranes in late afternoon: BELOW: A closed up view of the damage
"It is too early to say what actually happened and our engineers are investigating whether it was caused by technical glitches or human error," she said. She said that after the initial investigation, the officers would decide how to lift the coach from the embankment.

ABOVE: An end view after the damaged coach was removed BELOW: the end of the line with the flats in the background
The mishap happened in the wake of the much-publicised incident on Oct 6 in which the Putra-LRT services were disrupted for nearly 10 hours following a technical glitch
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And here is the STAR’s account of the incident with some other details
Train overshoots LRT terminal and is left dangling; By MARC LOURDES and DHARMENDER SINGH

KUALA LUMPUR: A light rail transit train overshot the end of its tracks and ended up dangling about 25m above the ground near the Sentul Timur station here. The train, belonging to the Ampang Line (formerly known as Star-LRT) was empty save for the driver when the incident occurred at 7.11am yesterday. Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd (Rapid KL), the operator of the system, said in a statement that the train had stopped at Sentul Timur station where all the passengers alighted. The train, which had started operations at Ampang station at 6.40am, then proceeded to the stabling area between the station and the end of the line. However, the train overshot the end of the tracks, crashed into the buffer stop and parapet wall of the elevated concrete guideway and ended up with the front half of its first coach hanging precariously in the air.
The train had six coaches. Rapid KL corporate communications division senior manager Katherine Chew confirmed that there were no passengers on board and said the driver was not hurt. “The cause of the accident is not yet known but Rapid KL is conducting a full investigation into the incident,” she said. The incident did not disrupt train services except at the Sentul Timur station which was closed for about 20 minutes following the incident. A resident at a block of flats opposite the station said he was sleeping at home when he heard a loud, grinding sound. The man, who only wanted to be identified as Naren, said the sound was caused by the train crashing into a metal buffer, causing it to fall onto the ground.
A TNB worker close to the scene said it was fortunate that the train did not fall off completely because there was an electricity substation underneath the stabling area. “If it had struck the substation, it would probably have exploded,” he said. When contacted by Bernama, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said he had directed Rapid KL to submit a comprehensive report on the matter to him. “I want them to submit a report to me. It has to be specific, identifying the cause of the incident and who is to be blamed,” he said. “Thank God there were no injuries and the system was not disrupted.” Yesterday’s incident was the latest in a spate of problems affecting Kuala Lumpur's LRT system.
A computer glitch on July 24 caused trains on the Kelana Jaya Line, formerly Putra-LRT, to stall. About a month later, services were disrupted due to flooding at the unused Seri Rampai station on the Kelana Jaya Line. On Oct 6, services between Masjid Jamek and Terminal Putra, also on the Kelana Jaya line, were disrupted for 10 hours when a train stalled near Damai station.