KOTA KINABALU: The state Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry will explore ways to enhance road safety aspects in Sabah, says Minister Datuk Christina Liew.
She said Sabah views seriously the accident where two foreign tourists were killed in the state’s east coast Semporna district on Monday (March 11).
The incident saw the deaths of a Singaporean man and a Vietnamese woman.
Liew said the matter must be given due attention as it involves Sabah’s tourism image.
She said enhancing road safety aspects with the authorities concerned would ensure similar mishaps do not recur.
“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 yesterday.
“This is especially at accident-prone stretches like Jalan Tawau-Semporna, following the accident that caused the deaths of two foreign tourists.”
In the incident on Monday, five others were also injured after the tour van they were travelling in was involved in a collision with a trailer at about 3.30pm.
Sabah Fire and Rescue Department operations centre officer Riki Mohan Singh Ramday said the dead were identified as Singaporean Lee Siong Huat, 60, and Vietnam national Ngo Trinh Buu Dung, 40.
He said the duo were killed on the spot after the mishap took place at KM20 of the route, adding that 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 lorry driver was arrested to assist in the investigations.
He said the case is being investigated under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987.
The offence carries a jail term of not less than five years and not more than 10 years, along with a minimum fine of RM20,000 and not exceeding RM50,000.
This was not the first fatal accident involving foreign nationals at the same stretch.
Last November, a 56-year-old tourist from China was killed following a collision between a tour bus and a lorry.
Fourteen other bus passengers, all from China, aged between 30 and 60, escaped unhurt.
