TAIPING: A nurse on duty at a horrific accident was shattered to learn that her cousin was among the three people killed in a three-vehicle accident at KM262.5 on the West Coast Expressway (WCE) heading north near Changkat Jering here on Friday (May 24).
Normahlina Mohd Nor, 45, who is attached to the Ayer Tawar Health Clinic, said they received a call about a road accident involving nine victims.
"As soon as we reached the location, I immediately treated three seriously injured children as fire-fighters were busy extricating an elderly man who was trapped in the wreckage. His wife died at the scene," she said.
It was only much later at the Forensics Department at Taiping Hospital here Saturday (May 25) that the tragic truth dawned on her.
"It was very dark and I did not recognise that one of the fatally wounded victims was my closest cousin from childhood, Mohd Fahimi Shaffie.
"I couldn't recognise anyone. The focus was to save lives," said Normahlina.
Mohd Fahimi's mother, Norzarina Ibrahim, 64, said her 36-year-old son was returning home to Batu 8, Trong, near here, following the school holidays.
"I was waiting for him and his family to come home as he was supposed to send me to the Penang International Airport to perform the haj next week,” she said.
In the 10.30pm incident, Mohd Fahimi and his wife Nor Aserah Ismail, 36, both teachers, died in their car while their two sons, aged eight and four, and a six-year-old daughter were treated at Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital (HRPB) in Ipoh.
The accident also killed Haminah Majid, 73, the passenger in a car driven by her daughter.
The 29-year-old Navy personnel and her children, aged five and one, were injured. - Bernama
