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Kurmi reminded reporters of her ordeal when she found herself on the bridge of a ferry in Triso, Sebuyau, on Saturday.
KUCHING (Jan 2): Triso ferry skipper Kurmi Denan couldn’t sleep well last night thinking of the passenger-laden van sinking into the murky waters of Batang Lupar as his passengers frantically tried to get out of the vehicle.
Being one of the first to witness the incident, he recounted the ordeal to reporters when he found himself on the same ferry he was taking on that fateful day.
“I was about to ‘sign’ (dock) at the ferry ramp, about 30 or 40 meters away. Initially, there were no vehicles waiting above the ramp.
“So I was concentrating on docking the ferry trying to line up with the ramp when all of a sudden a truck just came down the ramp like it wasn’t trying to brake.
“I was stunned by what happened before my very eyes,” he recalls.
The Triso ferry tragedy claimed nine lives, one of them a four-month-old baby, on the afternoon of New Year’s Day.
According to a spokesperson for the Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) yesterday (January 1), they received a distress call around 3:14 pm regarding the incident.
The Bomba personnel were dispatched from Simunjan station about 62 km away and Saratok station about 98 km from the scene of the incident.
The Bomba spokesperson said the Saratok Fire and Rescue Department team arrived at the scene first and confirmed that the incident involved a purple Ford Ranger with nine passengers, five men and four women, the youngest being a baby of just four. months.
The deceased are Siti Aisha Abdullah (36), Nor Shuhada Mohamad (16), Khairunnisa Muhamad (14), Muhd Mustaqim Mohd Hamdan (5), Mohd Aiman Mohd Hamdan (7), Mohd Ahmad Mohd Hamdan (4 months ), Wallace Phang (7) Alvin Phang (12) and the host Lorna Ting (33).
Kurmi said he immediately informed his colleague of what happened before canceling his docking procedure and diverting to the place where the truck was sinking.
“I took my passengers on board to the place where the van was sinking because the vehicle was still partially submerged.
“I lowered my ramp in an attempt to push the vehicle onto the shallow shore, but it kept sinking. It was so heartbreaking to see the victims inside the vehicles frantically fighting in the vehicles.
“I couldn’t sleep well last night thinking about that. When I closed my eyes, the scene replayed in my head, ”he said.
Kurmi said he was also disappointed with various social media posts blaming the ferry operator or the skipper, who was him at the time, accusing them of failing to observe the security measures said to have led to the incident.
Earlier today, Tan Sri Datuk Amar Chief Deputy Minister Dr. James Jemut Masing urged netizens and the public not to speculate on the cause of the Triso ferry ramp accident.
He said to allow the police and other authorities to carry out their investigations to find out what really happened.
This morning, during a visit to the scene of the incident, Masing said that the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Port Development, Datuk Julaihi Narawi, and the ferry operator had informed him that it was an accident.
They also told him that the unfortunate vehicle could have run over the ramp before losing control and sinking into the Batang Lupar River.
“The car fell off the ferry ramp, not the ferry. Therefore, it is not the fault of the ferry operator. What actually happened, we still don’t know, the car (wreckage) is still there.
“From what you know, there could have been a mechanical problem, we cannot answer that. Let the police investigate, ”he said.
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