KOTA BARU: Nur Adilah Mohd Rusdi, 20, missed boarding the ill-fated bus that crashed on the Jeli-Gerik East West Highway early Monday (June 9) by just 15 minutes due to a traffic jam.
The Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) student escaped the fatal crash after she arrived late to the pick-up point to board the bus, said her mother Rosyidah Husein, 50.
Rosyidah said Nur Adilah, the fifth of seven siblings, was supposed to board the chartered bus transporting UPSI students from Masjid Hadhari, Jerteh at 9pm on Sunday.
She said that the car driven by her husband, Mohd Rusdi Ramli, 55, to send their daughter to the pick-up point arrived after the bus had already departed.
"When contacted, the driver said the bus would stop in Machang, but my husband refused to send her there as it was quite far. In the end, my daughter hitched a ride with her uncle, Mohd Nizam Husien, who coincidentally was also travelling to Kuala Lumpur last night," she said.
Rosyidah said her daughter left their home in Kampung Gong Bayor, Besut around midnight with her uncle.
She said her daughter tried calling her friends who were on the bus around 1 am but received no response, before one friend contacted her around 2 am to inform her that the bus had been involved in an accident.
"What shocked us even more was when the police contacted my daughter and informed her that her name was listed as one of the bus passengers.
"In fact, the seat that my daughter was supposed to occupy was seat number nine, but last night it was taken by her friend," she said.
Rosyidah is grateful her daughter is now safe in Temerloh, although still traumatised and unwilling to be interviewed.
Before departing last night, Rosyidah said Nur Adilah managed to chat with her grandmother and bid her farewell, expressing worry that an accident might happen.
"I did scold her for saying such a thing, but she only smiled. Who would have thought her words would come true? I am so thankful that fate spared her last night," she said choked with emotion.
Rosyidah added that apart from Nur Adilah, another of her daughter's friends was also spared after not boarding the bus, having been admitted to Besut Hospital due to fever.
The tragic accident near Tasik Banding, Gerik involving the bus and a MPV claimed 15 lives and left 33 injured, 27 of them seriously. - Bernama
