In bizarre incident, MRT Corp confirms man jumped to death

KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 ― A man died in a bizarre incident that unfolded after a traffic accident near the multi-billion ringgit mass rapid transit (MRT) work site along Jalan Duta, the infrastructure company confirmed today.

In a brief statement, MRT Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) said a man, believed to be in his late 30s, was involved in an accident with another vehicle at around 11am.

The situation prompted the MRT Project traffic team to shift some of the temporary barriers at the project site to move the cars out of the way of traffic, before the drivers of both vehicles spoke to each other.

“Witness reports claimed that the then person then went to one of the MRT piers and climbed up the scaffolding there. He subsequently jumped from the scaffolding and died,” the statement read.

MRT Corp stressed that throughout the incident, the site was “properly cordoned off” with New Jersey Barriers and that no construction work was carried out at the location at the time of the incident.

“MRT Corp and all other parties involved in the MRT Project will provide police with the fullest cooperation for investigations into the case,” the company said.

This is the latest fatality that has happened along the MRT project line, with the last death involving a worker in an accident at the Semantan work site last February.

Last August, three Bangladeshi construction workers were killed at a Kota Damansara site after a 38m-long span weighing 650 tonnes was dislodged from a guideway under construction and fell to the ground below.

In June last year, a slab of metal fell from an MRT construction site in Pusat Bandar Damansara onto the main road and crushed the passenger side of a car. There were no passengers in the vehicle and the driver escaped unhurt.

The MRT Line 1 from Sungai Buloh to Kajang spans 51 kilometres and covers 31 stations, with a projected daily ridership of 400,000 people.

Scheduled to be fully operational by July 2017, it will also link up with existing KTM Komuter, LRT and ERL lines at selected stations.

The MRT Line 2 covering Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya was announced in the country’s 2015 Budget, and is expected to enter the process of public engagement to gain feedback on the proposed alignment in the second quarter of this year.