Mission to stop mat lajak

JOHOR BARU: Five years since his son survived a crash involving basikal lajak (modified bicycles), Salman Ahmed never misses the opportunity to tell off such cyclists whenever he sees them on the road.

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“I will stop my car, get my phone and take their photos in plain view. I would threaten to report them to the police if they do not go home immediately.

“And I would usually tell them that they can sit in the police lockup until their parents come to pick them up,” said the 56-year-old former bus driver.

His son Muhamad Arif Salman is one of the survivors of the 2017 tragedy in which a car driven by Sam Ke Ting, now 27, ploughed into a group of teenage riders.

Eight boys, aged between 13 and 16, were killed.

The accident left his youngest son with a cracked skull and vision problems.

These days, Salman gets exasperated when he sees such mat lajak.

“It is frustrating to see the kids still out on the streets. I would tell them off as I do not want others to go through what my family went through,” he told Sunday Star yesterday.

Salman said the painful memories of that fateful day came to mind once again after last week’s High Court sentencing of Sam to six years’ jail for the accident in Jalan Lingkaran Dalam here at 3.20am on Feb 18, 2017.

According to Salman, his then 15-year-old son wanted to ride his bicycle to Johor Baru some 18km away to catch the annual Chingay procession on the night of Feb 17.

He said Muhamad Arif used to ride his bicycle with his 16-year-old cousin who was among the eight who died in the accident, and another two friends who live nearby.

That night, he wanted to ride to the city area “to watch the colourful floats from afar”.

“He begged us to let him go there. And it so happened that I was bedridden at the time due to gout, so I did not say much. I only told him not to stay out too late past midnight,” he added.

And later in the wee hours of the morning, Salman’s eldest son received a call from his colleague asking about Muhamad Arif’s whereabouts as there had been a tragedy involving basikal lajak riders.

“We rushed to Hospital Sultanah Aminah and I was ready to face the possibility that my son might have died.

“Fortunately, he survived despite severe injuries to his head, face, arms and legs. He had multiple stitches and medical procedures to stitch his scalp right down to his jaw, eyebrows as well as other parts of his body.

“The first thing Muhamad Arif said to me when he gained consciousness was ‘maaf papa, saya lawan cakap papa, saya minta maaf’ (sorry papa for going against you and I ask for your forgiveness),” Salman recalled.

It was only after some time later that the family told Muhamad Arif about the death of his cousin and close friends.

The boy, who was then in Form Three, eventually dropped out of school.

Salman, who quit his job to care for his son full-time after the crash, said Muhamad Arif had not been the same since the accident.

He has become forgetful and emotionally unstable.

“Until now, we cannot even mention the word ‘basikal’ around him or he will go into a fit,” he said.

Fortunately, he said Muhamad Ariff was improving slowly.

He recently started working at a factory near their home in Plentong.

Salman, who is a father of three, said his family wanted to move on from the ordeal as the past five years had been tormenting due to the negative comments and criticism against them.

To him, there were only victims in this tragedy.

“Both sides were in the wrong. Nobody wants to crash their car into others and nobody wants to get knocked down.

“It has been a long five years. We just want to move forward,” he said.