Jalan Cheras Accident - BHP

An accident involving 3 vehicles had occurred at about 3.30 am on 3 June 2010 at Jalan Cheras (near Cheras Velodrome). The chronology of the event as reported in the mass media was as follow:

1. A Toyota Vios - Vehicle 1 (1 driver & 1 passenger) heading towards Jalan Loke Yew was driven at high speed which later skidded to the opposite of the road hitting Vehicle 2.
2. A Myvi -Vehicle 2 (1 female driver) spun few times before being hit by incoming Vehicle 3.
3. A lorry - Vehicle 3 (1 driver & 1 passenger) with loads of vegetables then hit Vehicle 2 before Vehicle 2 burst into flames causing the burning of the female driver ALIVE. 

For many, this is another horrified accident and the worst is the burning to death alive of the victim. It is very sad to hear that.

However, what sparked controversial among the public is the posting of the below FB notes believed to be written by one of the witness (Witness A) who claimed that the life of the female driver could be save should the BHP petrol station's staff lend him a fire extinguisher. In this note, it is claimed that the witness had gone to the said petrol station and the staff refused to borrow a fire extinguisher despite offering to give his IC in exchange of the fire extinguisher. The writer then claimed that the two BHP attendant are murderer!

I believed many of you including me myself had seen such FB posting. When I first read about it, I felt the anger as you do as well.

This is the alleged FB notes posted by the witness. At the time of posting, the FB notes had been removed. The above was copied from a blog.

When I think it over again, the staff did not do anything wrong legally. To have a conclusive views I decided to search news article to justify the notes. 

This is the statement by the police. (Source: Bernama) However, this article does not help me in making judgement. It only tell the chronology of the accident.

The Malay Mail provides a good and clear picture from the view of the lorry driver, Abdul Halim. A few important points from this article are:

1. Abdul Halim claimed that the flames consumed the car is within seconds. So, if the witness A is able to get a fire extinguisher, that doesn't mean it could help.
2. There are other 2 witness who try to bring the fire down using small extinguishers but was in vain. So, what make you think that a bigger perhaps the standard size fire extinguishers can help?
3. The Vios driver is Cheng Kar Jin, 17 and passenger Cheng Yoke Ying, 17. 

From this Komunitikini article, it actually tell that the Witness A is actually a bystander named Teo Chai Yong. As can seen, the police was claimed to say that the victim could have been saved should a fire extinguisher arrived in time. But, can anyone defined the time frame for that? For Witness A to go to the nearest BHP station, asked for a fire extinguisher and drive straight of the Jalan Cheras road before making a U-turn and turning back at the same far distance to the scene, it may take at least 2 to 3 minutes or more (just my prediction).  

The Myvi driven by the victim

This is the photo captured by the anonymous bystander (Ondsceneblog). What make the issue even worse is the statement made by the BHP government relation manager, Abdul Kaiyum. He was saying that the staff refused to open the door because Witness A was not acting calm. As such, the public may condemn the STUPID and BRAINLESS manager. How could a person who had watch such a tragic accident to act calm when his request for help was not entertained but instead turned down despite giving away his IC? If the person who made such request act so steady and calm, then you should have suspicious of him/ her. If I am the BHP Director, I would have fired him for tarnishing the image of the company.

Instead, he shall be honest and told the press that it was an act of self defence to any untoward incidents. If the public only read the FB notes, definitely they will burst into anger. However, once you see this article (exclude the acting not calmly) and also the lorry driver statement, you may have a second thought just like me.

Robberies in petrol station is very COMMON especially on midnight till there was once that the petrol station operators deny to operate their premises for 24 hours. Correct me if I am wrong, petrol station in rural areas do close at midnight which I observed in my hometown and other areas. Furthermore, the 2 staffs have previous records of being attacked and beaten up by assailants. No one can tell exactly what is true or what is fake. The accident happened 500 m away which is out of sight of the staff. I had seen comments from other blog post which say that 'oh come on, the IC won't be fake one right!' of which I am totally disagree as even the complicated passport can be faked. So, it will be totally based on personal judgement. No one will know if the staff open the door at the midnight of 3 am ++, there might be accomplices hiding from the dark. 

      

What triggering me to write this post is there is growing blog post writing on this topic and even a FB page to boycott BHP petrol was since created. The main ISSUE here is the public are misled to believe that the BHP staff are the murderer in this accident which is totally a reverse of fact.  

This is the FB page created to boycott BHP petrol. (Link here).

I am writing this not because to defend the BHP petrol station. I have not affiliations to this petrol company and I have changed to other petrol due to some unpleasant experience in the stations. My main intention is to correct the public for making false claim. Ever since the FB notes was posted, I saw growing number of blog posts writing on it, with each writing a very short post attached with the FB notes. Some called for boycott of the BHP while some claims that the BHP staff are the murderer.

Hey people! I do not read law but I believe you may be legally sued for claiming BHP or BHP staff of whatsoever is the murderer in this accident. The main murderer is the driver of the Toyota Vios who hit the Myvi driven by the victim. The public is generally misled and their attention is diverted into the BHP staff and the fire extinguisher issue. Reading a source is generally not enough to make any claims. You should have read others articles as well to justify your views.

Here are my opinions:

1. The BHP staff may be morally wrong for not lending the fire extinguisher despite being told it was a real accident and Witness A is willing to give them his IC to prove it was a real scenario. However, the BHP staff did not do any wrong legally.
   
   
2. Creating FB page and making a blog post asking the public to boycott BHP petrol is legally not wrong if your judgement is that the staff lack of humanity, True enough how much a fire extinguisher would cost compared to a life of a person. As a consumer, you have the power to decide and to choose you products.
   
   
3. Claiming the BHP staff as murderer is legally wrong. The real murderer is the driver of the Toyota Vios who hit the car of the victim. You may be sued for tarnishing the image of the company. (in my opinion)
   
   
4. Having a fire extinguisher as for Witness A doesn't mean that the life of the victim could have been saved. It takes time for him to go back to the scene and by that time, the flame might be too huge to get close to it. In addition, a standard fire extinguisher may not be able to put down a big fire. Moreover, there are two other witnesses who had tried using a small fire extinguisher but it was in vain.
   
   
5. The Witness A's FB notes is nothing wrong. When you are in angry mode, you will say or act something beyond usual. I do understand how frusfrated when he felt that he could save a life of a person should he was given a fire extinguisher on hand. However, one must understand it is just assumption and probability and not definite.
   
   
6. The big mistake is when people use his FB notes and started to claim the BHP staff are the murderer in their blog post. Once again, you may say that their staff lack of humanity but you cannot claim they are the murderer. They are not even present on the scene.
   
   
7. One must also understand this is the culture in our society which is lack trustworthy and lack of secure among us. It is not something wrong as this culture is driven by the increased crime rate in the country. The police may have claim that the crime rate dropped SHARPLY but the citizens know the real situation. The big crime may be reduced but the small crime such as small robbery, small snatch theft, lost of items in the house compound like shoes and etc may not be reported to the authority. 

To conclude, let's not pointing our finger to anyone. It was an accident which was unplanned and nobody knows it. 

A better approach is to take this accident as a lesson for all drivers,. What we can do is how to ensure the safety of the driver as well as other road users? How can we better improve the conditions of the roads to prevent such incident in the future? (Eg putting a higher barriers)

As for the BHP petrol station, the issue does not only involved that particular petrol station but to ALL the petrol station nationwide. How can we improve the guidelines of opening the door of the kioks in emergency cases? How can we identify a real case to a fake case? How can we improve to protect the safety of the staff during late hours?

So, what say you?

Finally, my deep condolences to the family of the deceased.

*UPDATE*

Seriously, I am very tired to answer allegations to those people who deny that BHP attendants are wrong legally. Some called us lack of sympathy while some said we do not understand the pain assuming the commenters know VERY WELL.

Beside, many just drop their opinion without reading the whole story as well as the comment by other readers making me to answer repeatedly. If I alone only say this, I might be wrong. However, my views are supported by many other caring Malaysian. So, think twice.

Below are the listed good example by me and my readers. Do read before giving opinions.

1. k0k s3n w4i: Reminds me of the Gaza flotilla incident where Malay Muslims went all antisemitic and blame the entire Jewish race for what the Israeli military and government did - when in reality, most Jews are not zionists, not Israeli, and not supportive of Israel's crimes against humanity. I dislike our countrymen's sheep-like mentality that judge by emotions rather than by facts.
   
   
2. Bushido: Taking the moral high ground & condemning others who did not react as one feels they should have done is so easy.When you dissect the situation & ask yourself what you would have done if you had been there, then you'll realise nothing is ever so clear cut in real life ! Anyway, in the first place isn't 3.30 am an insane time to be out on the road ?
   
   
3. J2Kfm : First thing that comes to mind, he must have blamed it on the staff of the petrol station for not lending/giving him the extinguishers. Okay ... I can understand that, plus the intense situation at hand, added fuel to the fire. A figure of speech.
   
   But there HAS to be a rule somewhere, stating how the fire extinguishers can be utilized. Surely one can't take an extinguisher from a station and uses that to extinguish fires NOT visible from the station, OR not within the vicinity of the station, not within the parameters of the station.
   
   Especially when this happened in the middle of the night, and the staff had previous untoward incidents before.
   
   
4. Bushido: If someone comes to your house at 3.30 am, banging on your door demanding that you open up & let him use the phone to call the emergency services because someone is burning to death HALF A KILOMETER away & out of your sight;
   
   will you open up ????
   
   
5. KF: Lets say if Mr A borrow money from Ah LOng. They said they will killed Mr A if he failed to get RM 100K. So, Mr A borrowed the money from you otherwise he would be killed the next day. However, you refused to lend your money. The next day, he got killed. The family then sued you for not helping him as a friend. So, what do u think?
   
   Instead of blaming the Ah Long who kill Mr. A, now people are blaming you to be a murderer. Does that sound logical?

Finally, this is a FREEDOM OF SPEECH. No one is perfectly right or wrong. Don't be offensive when making your claims and suppressed others to view their opinions. If you are such person, you are not welcomed here.

Having such stand doesn't mean that we are lack sympathy. As Bushido said, stop using the high and good moral values and condemning others for having an opinion that is totally opposite of yours. Be mature and be open minded to receive criticism. Having said that, I am not suppressing you the view out that the BHP attendants are murderer. You can do so but please come out with justified view.