Umno building safe despite storm damage, inquest told: GEORGE TOWN, Sept 4 — The Umno building along Macalister Road is safe to occupy despite the June 13 incident when its feature wall and lightning arrester crashed onto the road below during a freak storm, an inquest heard today. Penang Island Municipal Council building department director Yew Tung Seang told the coroner’s court that the building was structurally sound after the conducting officer Suhaimi Ibrahim asked if it is safe for a site visit during the inquest proceedings. “The building is safe to visit and it is still safe to occupy,” Yew said. Coroner Khairul Anuar Abd Halim had earlier asked the conducting officers if they planned to visit the site during the inquest. Suhaimi told the court that it was on the agenda of the inquest before asking Yew if the building was safe. Earlier, Yew explained that the portion that had fallen from the building was a 42-metre “feature wall” with a 67.3-metre lightning arrester. He was testifying in an inquest to ascertain the death of economy rice seller Lim Chin Aik, who was believed to be buried in Macalister Road after his car was hit by a falling concrete beam during a freak storm on June 13. In the storm, the lightning arrester of the Umno building crashed onto the road below, burying Lim’s car and damaging seven other vehicles. Efforts to recover his body were called off after four days of digging due to concerns that further excavation could affect the surrounding buildings; Lim’s remains were never found. Only parts of his Honda City were recovered from the crater and the car’s chassis number was matched to that of Lim’s. The inquest was ordered to ascertain the death of Lim as his body was not recovered, as a death certificate could not be issued without proof of his demise. Yew also told the court that the building consultant engineer, Tahir and Wong, and architect, T.R. Hamzah and Yeang, had submitted a full report on the incident. “The report stated that the main cause of the incident was due to the unusual storm on that day,” he said. The council did not accept this explanation and had ordered the building owner, JKP Sdn Bhd, to appoint an independent consultant to conduct a detailed forensics investigation into the cause of the incident, he added. “JKP had appointed Ikram to conduct the investigations and they initially were supposed to submit the report by the end of July but on Aug 1, they appealed to the council to allow them to submit the complete report by the end of September,” Yew said. He also revealed that the council did not have any specific requirements that needed to be met for the developer to build a structure such as the “feature wall” and lightning arrester. “The certification by the structural engineer is sufficient for us to accept that the structure complies with specifications,” he said. Later, the inquest called as its ninth witness Lim Khung Ling, 43, who is Chin Aik’s younger brother. He told the court that he wished to believe that his brother was still alive and that nothing had happened to him, but that the evidence showed otherwise. “Based on all proof found at the site, it all showed that he was involved in the incident and that we will never see him again,” he said. Lim, a salesman, also asked that the death certificate for his elder brother be issued, saying that while Chin Aik might be gone, he left behind loved ones who needed to settle administrative matters such as bank loans, for which the death certificate was needed. “We are only common people and my sister-in-law is still grieving so we hope this case will not take too long to complete,” he said. The inquest continues in the afternoon. Chin Aik’s father, Lim Kean Chong, took to the witness stand later in the afternoon and said that his son had never left home without informing his family. “He has never disappeared for long periods of time without informing any of us,” he said. Kean Chong, who lived with his son at Lim Jetty, said he believed something bad must have really happened to Chin Aik to prevent him from returning home. The inquest continues tomorrow. dlvr.it/3vlQVc
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 11:23:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015