TRISO: The action of eight heroes who jumped into the river to try to save the nine victims in the Triso ferry point tragedy has been acknowledged and praised by the general public. Indeed, they are heroes!
A bystander claimed that he saw a big crocodile not far from the spot where the victims’ vehicle fell into Batang Lupar.
The heroes of course were too busy to notice anything else as they were intent on saving the victims inside their four-wheel-drive vehicle on New Year’s Day.
Triso village chief Awang Mos Sulaiman who was among those who jumped into the river said, “We were dealing with human lives. Our motivation was stronger that the fears that we had.”
Awang Mos suffered a light injury to his arm caused by a broken window of the vehicle when he tried to get to the drowning victims.
The other seven men who in the river with him were Bujang Yakup, Sahrin Bujang, Ahmad Abdullah @ Tuah, Jamil Endong, Taufik Ramli, Man Sulaiman and a brother of one of the victims, Ting Hing Ping.
“Sahrin was the first young man to jump into the river. He dove as deep as four metres to tie a rope to the vehicle so that we could pull it up.
“The vehicle at that time was upside down and tilted. At that time, we saw that the victims’ bodies had become stiff and were not in their respective positions anymore. So, we just broke the windscreens and removed them one by one,” he said.
He said the first victim taken out was the driver, Lorna Ting, and the last was Mohd Mustaqim Mohamad Hamzah.
“The saddest moment for me was when I lifted the body of Siti Aishah Abdullah’s baby, Mohd Ahmad Mohd Hamzah, who was only four-months old,” he said.
He said while lifting Mohd Ahmah’s body, he tried his best to hold back his tears and people around the jetty were all shedding tears with him.
“This was our attempt which lasted for about 45 minutes to try to save them, but God loves them more. I admit I feel very sad because this is one of our worst tragedies, we, the residents of Kampung Triso, are involved in,” he said.
Awang Mos also extended his condolences to the victims’ family members hoped that they would persevere for the rest of their lives.
