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Two sections of the partly-constructed flyover collapsed yesterday onto the
New Klang Valley Expressway, a major highway leading south of the capital Kuala Lumpur.
<p>Acting Works Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the ministry had met with
all the relevant parties and the flyover’s developer, SP Setia.</p>
<p>"The cause of the incident is still being investigated. This is because
the technical report from SP Setia is expected within the next 24 hours,"
Mohamed Khaled, standing in for S Samy Vellu who is overseas, said in a statement.</p>
<p><b>Severe head injuries</b></p>
<p>Seventeen construction workers were on top of one of the sections that collapsed.
Nine of the workers, all from Bangladesh, were rushed to hospital, and three
suffered severe head injuries, reports said.</p>
<p>"We were dragging a reinforcing cable across the flyover with 15 other
workers when I heard a loud cracking sound," 30-year-old worker Nurzzaman
Monzin told the Star newspaper.</p>
<p>"The section suddenly collapsed. I managed to break my fall by jumping
off the falling panel just before it crashed onto the road," said Nurzzaman,
whose brother Shafiqul Mozahar was injured.</p>
<p>"Shafiqul could not escape as he was trapped by the cable he was holding,"
he said.</p>
<p>A car passing underneath the flyover seconds before the collapse narrowly missed
being crushed but then crashed into a road divider. There were no injuries reported,
said the New Straits Times.</p>
<p>SP Setia, which is building the road to link to one of its housing projects,
issued an apology yesterday.</p>
<p>"We are sorry over the unfortunate incident and will spare no effort to
investigate thoroughly and get to the root of the cause," the group’s managing
director Liew Kee Sin was quoted as saying by the Star. – AFP
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