Potentially deadly: A view of the lorry’s empty wheel well after the detachment on the Sitiawan stretch of the WCE. — Picture courtesy of the Fire and Rescue Department
IPOH: A family of four was injured in a three-car collision due to a detached wheel from a 45-tonne oil tanker along the West Coast Expressway (WCE) near Sitiawan yesterday.
Perak Fire and Rescue Department operations assistant director Sabarodzi Nor Ahmad said the department received an emergency call at about 8.40pm with fire engines from the Sitiawan and Seri Manjung Fire and Rescue stations, located 20 km away, arriving at the scene 13 minutes later.
He said the accident happened at KM199 along the highway involving the victims, a 35-year-old man, a 36-year-old woman, and two boys aged three and four, who were travelling in a Toyota Yaris.
He added that the three male drivers of a Honda Civic, a Mercedes-Benz and a Volvo oil tanker escaped unharmed.
“The operations commander executed the Saver (System Approach to Victim Entrapment Rescue) concept, instructing the team to use hydraulic equipment to rescue the lady who was trapped in the vehicle,” he said in a statement reported by Bernama yesterday.
Sabarodzi reported that emergency services rushed one of the three injured victims to hospital for further treatment.
The rescue operation concluded at 10.36pm, he added.