19 killed in Malaysia bus crash

At least 19 people were killed when an express bus overturned today on Malaysia’s main highway, police and fire officials said.

Another 10 people on the bus, including the seriously hurt driver, were admitted to hospital with various injuries, said a hospital spokesman and a police officer contacted at the scene in Bukit Gantang, about 125 miles north of Kuala Lumpur.

“The roof of the bus was totally ripped off,” said the police officer.

Two Indonesians were among the dead, while the others were all Malaysian, said a spokesman for the fire station in the nearby town of Taiping.

“From our investigation of the brake marks, the driver was sleeping,” said the spokesman.

National news agency Bernama reported that seven of the injured were in a serious condition.

The accident occurred before dawn on the North-South Expressway, which runs the entire length of the country from the Thai border in the north to Johor Bahru at the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula.

Bernama said the bus, travelling from Johor Bahru to the northern town of Alor Star, was going downhill when it hit the curb and went 20 yards off the road before flipping over. It had completed 405 miles of the 515-mile journey when the tragedy occurred.