Slim River freak accident: Ayah Cu, we don't want to go home yet - victim's daughter

That was the plea made by Mia Dhelisya Ridzuan, the eldest of three siblings who were orphaned following the fatal accident at 371.9KM North South Highway (PLUS) near Slim River on Tuesday.

Abu Bakar Baharom, 36, the brother-in-law of Intan Maizura Aidul Badri, 34, who perished in the tragic accident which claimed the life of her husband, Ridzuan Abdul Rajak, disclosed that her niece would not be orphaned had she stayed longer at her residence.

But, Abu Bakar along with the other family members had to resign to their fate over God’s plans.

He said, his family members should have departed Taiping to Shah Alam in the evening but the journey was pushed earlier.

“Mia calls me Ayah Cu and she said that she refused to leave early as she wanted to wait for my wife to return from home in the evening. They used to visit us as Taiping is their hometown,” said Abu Bakar.

“She was crying when she said that she didn’t want to go home but her mother insisted in leaving as she had to return to work,” said the Taiping-born Abu Bakar.

He also said that he only learnt about the freak accident from the news at 8pm.

“We were clueless about the fatal accident, except after we saw the news on the bulletin. We were just so shocked,” he added.

Abu Bakar said he was informed by the doctor that Mia was still unconscious at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital here and suffered broken ribs.

“One of her kidneys might be damaged but we're still awaiting results from the specialist.

“(Her sisters) Ayra Batrisya sustained a broken limb and injured her face, while Rania Elysya broke both her legs and sustained head injury,” he said.

In the accident, three other victims were badly injured, while another three sustained minor injuries when a tanker travelling north went out of control and veered onto the opposite lane and crashed into the other vehicles.

Three other lorries - laden with tyres, fish and logs - and four cars, namely a Proton Exora, Alfa Romeo, BMW and Honda City, were involved in the crash.