KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is taking a serious view of the accident where two foreign tourists were killed in the state’s east coast Semporna district, says Datuk Christina Liew.
The state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister said the latest incident on Monday (March 11), which saw the death of a Singaporean man and a Vietnamese woman, must be given due attention as it involved Sabah’s tourism image.
She said she would explore ways to enhance road safety aspects with the authorities concerned to ensure similar mishaps do not occur in the future.
"I will discuss the need to improve road safety with Sri Pelancongan Sabah chairman Ken Pan Ying On, who is responsible for tourism development in the Tawau and Semporna districts," she said in a statement here on Tuesday (March 12).
"This is especially at accident-prone stretches like the Jalan Tawau – Semporna following the accident that caused the death of two foreign tourists," Liew added.
In the incident on Monday, two foreign tourists were killed and five others hurt after the tour van they were travelling in was involved in a collision with a trailer lorry at about 3.30pm.
Sabah Fire and Rescue Department operations centre officer Riki Mohan Singh Ramday said the dead were identified as Lee Siong Huat, 60, a Singaporean and Vietnam national Ngo Trinh Buu Dung, 40.
He said the duo were killed on the spot following the mishap at KM20 Jalan Semporna-Tawau, adding the injured victims included an 11-year-old girl from Singapore.
Three men, including the 42-year-old tour van driver, were seriously hurt.
Semporna police chief Supt Mohd Farhan Lee Abdullah said the 29-year-old driver behind the trailer lorry was subsequently arrested to assist in the investigations.
He said the case was being investigated under Section 41 (1) of the Road Transport Act 1987, adding that the man faced no less than five years and not over 10 years of imprisonment, and a minimum fine of RM20,000 did not exceed RM50,000.
This was not the first fatal accident involving foreign nationals at the same stretch as a 56-year-old tourist from China was killed following a collision between a tour bus and a lorry along the Semporna-Tawau last November.
Fourteen other bus passengers, all from China, aged between 30 and 60, had escaped unhurt.
