Suspension bridge tragedy: Search extended to further 15km - Updated: 6.46pm:
2009/10/27
The search and rescue operation following the collapse of a suspension bridge across the Kampar River at a school in Kuala Dipang near here has been extended 15 kilometres downriver.
K. Mathivanan, 12, said the bridge had swayed a lot before it collapsed as several of the pupils were jumping about and playing with one another.
Kampar police chief Supt Abdul Aziz Salleh said the rescuers were looking for two primary schoolgirls who went missing after the bridge collapsed at 10.30pm last night as pupils participating in a camp were crossing it.
The two pupils have been identified as Diryasree a/p Vasudevan, 12, of Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Tamil (SJKT) Gopeng and Davadharshini a/p Maheswaran, 11, of SJKT Mambang Di Awan near here.
Another schoolgirl of SJKT Mambang Di Awan, Dina Deve a/p Nathan, 11, drowned in the incident. Her body was recovered from the river at 8.40am today. Abdul Aziz said the Kampar River was swift-flowing but the rescuers would continue with their search until they found the two girls.
EARLIER REPORT: Police have confirmed that of the 22 pupils feared drowned after a suspension bridge collapsed over the Kampar river last night; 19 have been accounted for, two are still missing and the body of a pupil has been recovered.
The tragedy occurred during a school camping trip in Kuala Dipang near Ipoh.
K. Mathivanan, 12, said the bridge had swayed a lot before it collapsed as several of the pupils were jumping about and playing with one another.
Police said the body of Dina Deve a/p Nathan was found at 8.40am today and 19 other pupils earlier feared drowned were safe.
The search and rescue operation involved 222 personnel led by the police, with assistance from the General Operations Force, navy, fire and rescue department, People's Volunteer Corps (Rela), Civil Defence Department and other agencies.
The pupils were among 298 from 60 primary schools in Kampar, Tronoh and Batu Gajah who were to participate in a 1Malaysia camp organised by the Kinta Selatan District Education Department starting today.
They had come yesterday for the registration and were walking across the bridge from the campsite to the school to have their dinner when the accident happened.
Parents of the pupils rushed to the school upon hearing news of the accident, and several of them became angry when they could not confirm the safety of their children even as late as 3am.
A pupil, K. Mathivanan, 12, said the bridge collapsed all of a sudden when about 30 to 50 pupils were on it, some walking to the school and others returning to the campsite.
He said the bridge had swayed a lot before it collapsed as several of the pupils were jumping about and playing with one another.
"All of a sudden, we found ourselves thrown into the river. I managed to hold on to a rope. The current was swift but I managed to drag myself out of the water," he said.
The bridge, about 50 metres long, was built about two weeks ago to replace an old one which had collapsed, said a member of the school's Parent-Teacher Association.
A teacher, Mohd Safri Abdul Rafar, said he was not far from the bridge when it collapsed and quickly jumped over a fence and dived into the river in the attempt to rescue the pupils.
"I managed to pull out three or four pupils. The current was swift and I almost got dragged away," he said. Safri said he went into the river again and pulled out five more pupils.
A guard of the school, who identified himself as Idris, said he pulled out six pupils from the river.
Safri said he was sad that he could not rescue a pupil who had held onto a metal cable before being dragged away by the current.
Twenty-three teachers were involved in the camp, the second to be organised by the Kinta Selatan district education department after the first one held at the Sekolah Kebangsaan Pos Raya last week.
Similar camps were to be held simultaneously today in the Larut, Matang and Selama as well as Manjung district, said Safri, adding that the pupils were from all races and the aim of the camp was to foster unity and interaction through activities such as traditional cooking, cultural training and games.
Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir visited the scene of the accident last night and ordered an immediate investigation.
"The suspension bridge was newly built. We want to know if it was built to specifications as it collapsed after a metal pillar got ripped off the ground," he said.
A metal pillar and its concrete block foundation was ripped off the ground in the incident and part of the bridge walkway was afloat on the river.
The Kampar River is known for extreme water sports. The part of the river where the bridge collapsed is about 30 metres wide and 1.5 metres deep. -- BERNAMA
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Reader's Comments
(Latest Comments Displayed First)
fhf:
Want to see and experience a beautiful pedestrian suspension bridge that is still standing firmly and being enjoyed.....then come to the HSBC Tree Top Walk in MacRitchie Reservoir Nature Reserve, Singapore. This is the way to build one ! If our neighbour can do it, then why can't Malaysia ? These two countries are just....8 km ( ? ) apart, but yet one can see the differences, the education system, the cleanliness of the places, the decision to go ahead and use an International Language as a medium of instruction,....etc.
Gelisah hati! :
Its simple to see who could be responsible.
1) The campsite owners. For not having a certified bridge. They may have paid for a cheap bridge and this is what it is.
2) The bridge constructor.
Could have compromised on material, design & specifications.
3) The guardians (teachers in this case).
Don't they see the danger & the need to supervise them considering it was a river they had to cross. How can the public trust the public teachers for even the basic they lack. How are we going to send our children to be taught by these teachers who cannot even show basic guardianship.
4) The government. Lastly these are all the product of our system. We get crap contractors, crap teachers, crap doctors .... etc. Not that everyone is crap but we can just get away with it. There is no accountability in this country.
sya3:
I agree with not to blame children. Lacking of teacher supervising the movement of children is on of the reason. Another reason is the bridge is not been check properly for the safety. I strongly believe the bridge should be receive a safety certificate from Bomba Department.
Iskandar Abdullah:
Considering the spate of engineering failures in Malaysia, eg. multimillion dollar stadium roof collapse, multimillion dollar elevated highway pillars cracking...the list goes on.. and we always here the politicians asking for "enquiry", but after that..just like all other inquiries..when the culprits are identified..NFA, because they are probably well "connected".
When is the government going to start to be accountable to the Rakyat?
People go to jail in other countries for such crimes...criminal negligence.
Well, what can you expect from leaders who believe that "money politics" is not the same as corruption, and being disbarred for swindling clients is just like parking your car in the wrong spot.
lastboyscout:
The buck stops here,goverment ministry should be blamed for lack of proper enforcement on projects. Enough lives spared due to ineffective monitoring.
amy:
1. don't blame the children. they do have the tendencies to jump and run around
2. teacher should have supervised them. organize the children in small groups with 2 teachers at least.
3. the contractor who build the bridge should have put a proper warning on the weight limit to cross the bridge.
4. building a bridge according to safety is a MUST! approving this kind of foundation should take a lot of precautions since it's in a MOE activities area and the will be used especially by children.
5. the bridge was newly made. how long does it take to approve this kind of building? 1 day or 1 week?
sharm:
Hot on the heels of excess expenditure comes this tragedy where some middle men have gained with the construction of this shoddy bridge and parents have lost their children. What a shame. Don't only offer condolences go after who is accountable. Another commitee to be set up to probe this incident which would soon be closed with no results as we have seen in Lingam's case. Its a mere waste of time and adds insult to the injury suffered by parents who have lost their children.
Terry Lam:
I feel so sad & Angry for this...
Concerned Mother:
To a child everything is a play. It is the responsibility of the organisers to ensure that the children are managed in groups and kept an eye upon all the time. It is all about systematizing and organizing masses. The usual scenario that we see in government schools is where all the students are grouped together and given blanket instructions without taking into account environmental, resources, space, behavioural and other relevant factors. More often than not the whole thing becomes a complete chaos. That could have been the case on that fateful day, for it does not make sense that there were a large number of students on the bridge heading both ways when the incident happened.
My heart goes out to the parents of the three girls. May God give them the strength to face this trying time.
Peter:
Very sad indeed. Hope that similar kind of tragedy would not happen again.
As a parent, I do support activities for school children but I am always against outing such as boating, canoeing and seaside outing. Children tend to forget about safety when they are enjoying themselves.
RSanthini:
This is 100% the responsibility and the fault of the contractors. This what happends if all the government projects are given to the BUMIPUTRA contractors. Many incidents had occurred and a lot more going to take place if BN GOVERNMENT is going to continue with this brainless policy. Is this what we acknowledged as 1 MALAYSIA??? Think wisely�.
Ron:
298 people with only 25 teachers. I organised camp for kids and from my experience 25 teachers is not enough to handle kids at this age. I just recently organised one camp for a small group in this same age group and my ratio is one leader to 6 to 8 kids. for this, we need about 40 teachers. strict rules need to apply on these kids. kids are kids. so we need to remind them of the many do and don't at all times. We cannot keep on making the same old mistakes. We are tired of all these. Please YB. Take this note seriously. Life gone because of these negligence. Enough is Enough.
s. Fabar:
Why should a suspension bridge be builtaround there when a proper concrete bridge is more suitable. Such a tregedy is bound to happen one day. Only three lifes were lost thank to the fast action taken.
Abd Rahim:
A comprehensive investigation has to be done to find out the reason behind this tragedy. Whoever involved in this project need to be responsible for this. This including the officer who approves the bridge to be used by public. Bring the culprit to justice. Tq.
richard:
The authorities should also held responsible for not putting any signboard on the limitations of peoples per crossing. Cant blame the contractor solely as every structure have the limitationa and specifications. If the bridge SWL is 500kgs and you put it 1500kgs then trsgedy bound to happened and not accaunted the moving loads caused by students jumping about..The author. definetly knew the proof load and nothing being done like putting a sign board to warned the danger when exceeding the numbers of ppl per crossing. So easy to make the contractor a scapegoat but from my oppinion the JKR should be accaunted responsible even the contractor do not built according to specificationss. Closed monitoring is vital to ensure it is built according to the specified requirements. As civil engineer, more or less knew what went wrong. Malaysian culture, always blame the contractor is the easiest way out.
Wong:
It is sad to hear and sympathy to the families. The pupils were supposed to return to their campsite with a specific time. What were they doing out there hanging around as late as 3am in the early morning as mentioned.
I like to blame the contractors who always make quick profit from government projecs.They do not follow specifications and and use cheap low grade products and usually would sacrifice safety for own personal gains.
wong:
The teachers should held responsible on that tragedy. Teachers should closely monitored students activities. Also they should be warned what should and should not do especially on camping activities.
Benesan:
Children have the right to enjoy themselves, they must not be wrapped in cotton and removed from enjoying their youth. Rather than shooting the blame on one another, it is imperative the missing are found and all measures taken to prevent such tragedy again.
Denis QUENTIN:
Another bad construction... Who the hell was the contractor ? How come this newly fixed structure could collapse, it must be a miss engenering. The contractor should be accounted responsible for those lost lifes.
Badrul Omar:
The key factor in building a suspension bridge lies on the two pillars. It should be anchored down properly as the weight would rest on it apart from the suspension cable itself. But the pillar of the ill fated bridge doesn't really looked that it has been properly anchored. The pillar also looks too thin. Maybe the material was also not right. It even looks like they're building goal posts instead of a suspension bridge that runs over a rapid.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel built the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England almost 150 years ago. We can't even build a small bridge to last several weeks!
Hakimah K. Suhaimi:
omg this is so tragic. condolences to all the families involved. it's obvious that the supervision is lacking, how could that large num of pupils be on the suspension bridge at the same time? whatnot the poor foundation of the new built bridge
thevanthiran:
where is the athourities... sleeepy huh..
VerySedih:
JKR is to be blamed..Who drew the plans..who approved the plans..Who supervised the construction..who certified the completed bridge..who ok'ed the usage..
amourWong:
teacher must be punish how can 10.30 pm across the river,is better no more camping
sheila (malaysia):
I do think its a freak accident, and everyone should stop blaming the teachers, parents and students ...however do investigate on the bridge approvals and how much it would have cost for the bad job ...comes as no surprise ...its just sad that poor children became the victims this time around...who's the contractor anyway?
Political football:
Please do not make this into a political game. It is none other than an accident. Do not use to incident to stop further activities which will deprive of the young of the unity spirit which has always been a natural part of the people of Perak.
The contractors are at fault. It was not build according to the safety standards. The person who approve the bridge is also at fault. Use to incident to enforce the Malaysian Building Code for any other construction project, big or small. In this case, anyone who use this bridge could also fall into the river at anytime.
Perhaps, any school outings in the future should have a set of supervisions. The unseen forces like sexual behaviour.
Cheok L.H.:
Children are children, when they are in groups they have the tendencies to jump and run around. Thus, it is the responsibility of the organiser to see to it that the children are properly supervised in a big outing such as this one to avoid or prevent tragedy from happening. Don't expect children to behave like matured adults.
Dzulkarnain Amir:
The comments say it all. its really sickening and depressing to lose a life just because of poor supervision and lack of knowledge. Somebody has to be accountable for this tragic incident.!!!
Loges:
I totally agree with LTan, children as young as 10-12yrs should not get involved in these kind of activities. Neither school should organize nor the parents should allow their children to get involved. I completely cannot agree if a teacher comes out and says that he or she can handle these many children at one go. This is truly a tragedy and needs to be an eye opener for parents, teachers and schools. As a mum I am feeling the pain that the parents of Dina would be going through now. Sad very sad.
Loges:
I totally agree with LTan, children as young as 10-12yrs should not get involved in these kind of activities. Neither school should organize nor the parents should allow their children to get involved. I completely cannot agree if a teacher comes out and says that he or she can handle these many children at one go. This is truly a tragedy and needs to be an eye opener for parents, teachers and schools. As a mum I am feeling the pain that the parents of Dina would be going through now. Sad very sad.
Mike:
Check with the ministry of education. see the said school that organise this activities get any approver from them. And did the school bring enough man power to take care of their children, school should take the full responsibility on this. they should know suspension bridge wont be able to support that much of ppl at a time. ( 1 ppl aprox 40kg. 22ppl aprox 22x40 = sprox 880kg) from common sence we know the bringe wont support up to 880kg at a time. is almost the weight like a old proton saga car.
fhf:
The foundation of this bridge should be on piles, whether RC piles or steel H-piles. These files should be firmly embedded into the ground, into a founding layer like firm ground or if possible socketed into rock. These piles should be cut off and then cast into the pile cap, and then the bnridge should be built on these concrete pile-caps. How can a bridge crossing a large river had foundations WITHOUT piles ! This is crazy......this is what happens when emphasize is placed on sports and extra curricular activities, and NOT on KNOWLEDGE and EDUCATION ! People just DON'T know what they are building...! ! ! Proper engineering is very serious business and NOT child's play. A similar but, of course, very much larger bridge had collapsed in America....the infamous Tacoma Bridge incident , when the whole suspension bridge had started swaying in the strong winds in SHM ( Simple Harmonic Motion ), just like here, when the children started jumping up and down in unison !
azmi:
I agreed with Miss Issie Ocat comments - too many students at same time on the bridge.In future,there should be a signed indicating the maximum weight or number of people allowed on a suspension bridges at one time because structures designed to take certain load only.
Azwan:
I have a feeling that these pupils was playing on the bridge by swaying it to scare especially girl student. Lack of supervision i suppose.
Izwan:
Wonder if anything will happen to the contractor who built this scrappy bridge? I don't think soo. Instead they will blame on the kids....
Right2Choose:
This is the very reason why parents are reluctant to send their kids for (large) group activities. The people who are involved in planning these activities are just not professional enough to see to all eventualities. Now even more parents will be fearful in allowing their children to attend any more such gatherings.
Angie:
It is really annoying to see children boot camp are taking place in the country without the safety and health of the young participants taken into considerations. We appear to set a ne benchmark that every single event must end with some form of a tragedy and wonder when it will stop.
I urge the authorities will go hard on the organizing committees to prevent such reoccurence. The organizing parties must take responsibilities and accountability for failure to look into every aspects of the events.
It is really a sad day that a happy out-door event has turned nightmare.
name:
Given life jacket to cross a bridge? That's the funniest thing I hear in a while...
What a tragedy...there should have been someone keeping watch over the students as they move to and fro the campsite using the bridge...couldn't anyone see that it wasn't strong enough to withstand too many students all at the same time?
abdulghani:
as can be observed from the picture, it is apparent that the bridge foundation footing is not properly built. It seems lack of essential material e.g. y type iron and proper mixing ratio for added strength.
azami:
It seemed to me one of the pylons gave way as the rock bolders can be seen unearthed as though the tension of the suspension cable unable to be restrained by pylon's footing base as the result of overturning force
Kong Ming:
Why are the children not given a life jacket when crossing a 50 m width x 1.5m depth river with swift current.What is the max load for the suspension bridge design to withhold .This is the safety parameters needed .
nageswari a/p yellapa apparao:
it was a shocking and fearing news for me. government should take an immediate action on that bridge constructors.
L Tan:
As a parent with a school-going child, I am against school outings which involves boat trips, canoeing or similar water activities. With such big groups of school children, it will be extremely difficult for teachers-in-charge to care and discipline these kids.
