Triso jetty tragedy: Incident played over and over again in his mind, recounts ferry skipper

Kurmi recalling his ordeal to reporters when met on the bridge of a ferry in Triso, Sebuyau on Saturday.

KUCHING (Jan 2): Triso ferry skipper Kurmi Denan could not sleep well last night thinking of the passenger-laden pickup truck sinking into the murky waters of Batang Lupar while its passengers were frantically trying to get out of the vehicle.

Being among the first to witness the incident, he recounted the ordeal to reporters when met on the very same ferry he was commandeering on that fateful day.

“I was about to ‘sign in’ (dock) at the ferry ramp, about 30 to 40 meters away. Initially there were no vehicles waiting above the ramp.

“So I was focusing on docking the ferry trying to align up with the ramp when suddenly a pickup truck just drove down the ramp as if not attempting to brake.

“I was stunned with what happened before my own eyes,” he recalled.

The Triso ferry tragedy took nine lives, one of them a four-month-old infant, in the afternoon of new year’s day.

According to a Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) spokesperson yesterday (Jan 1), they received a distress call around 3.14pm regarding the incident.

Bomba personnel were dispatched from the Simunjan station about 62km away and the Saratok station about 98km away from the site of the incident.

The Bomba spokesperson said the Saratok Fire and Rescue Department team arrived first at the location and confirmed that the incident involved a purple Ford Ranger with nine passengers — five males and four females — the youngest being an infant, only four-months-old.

The deceased are Siti Aisha Abdullah (36), Nor Shuhada Mohamad (16), Khairunnisa Muhamad (14), Muhd Mustaqim Mohd Hamdan (5), Mohd Aiman Mohd Hamdan (7), Mohd Ahmad Mohd Hamdan (4 months), Wallace Phang (7) Alvin Phang (12), and the female driver Lorna Ting (33).

Kurmi said he immediately informed his colleague of what happened before cancelling his docking procedure and diverted to the spot where the pickup truck was sinking.

“I brought along my passengers on board to the spot where the pickup truck was sinking because the vehicle was still partially submerged.

“I lowered my ramp in an attempt to push the vehicle towards the shallow bank but it continued to sink. It was so heart wrenching to see the victims inside the vehicles frantically struggling in the vehicles.

“I could not sleep well last night thinking about it. When I closed my eyes the scene played again in my head,” he said.

Kurmi said he was also disappointed with several posts on social media blaming the ferry operator or the skipper, which was him at the time, accusing them of not observing safety measures which was said to have led to the incident.

Earlier today, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing urged netizens and the public not to speculate on the cause of the Triso ferry ramp accident.

He said to let the police and other authorities carry out their investigations to find out what actually happened.

This morning during a visit to the site of the incident, Masing said he had been briefed by Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Ports Development Datuk Julaihi Narawi and the ferry operator that it was a self accident.

He was also told that the ill-fated vehicle might have overshot the ramp before losing control and plunged into the Batang Lupar river.

“The car fell off the ferry ramp, not the ferry. Therefore, it is not the ferry operator’s fault. What actually happened, we still don’t know, the car (wreckage) is still there.

“For all you know there might have been a mechanical problem, we cannot answer that. Let the police investigate,” he said.

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