On Wednesday the 9th of April, 2.50pm, a Sabah Railway train (locomotive and 2 coaches) with 41 passengers and 3 staff, including driver Jividol Thaddeus, 49 left the Tenom station for Beaufort, a 49 km journey. About 15 minutes later, with Tenom 3km behind, the soil holding the track gave way, and the train plunged 20m (some say 20ft, some say 10m) into the Padas river, famous for whitewater rafting.

It had been raining continuously in that area for days.

As a result, two were killed and 39 injured. Those killed was Taminah Sikin, 51 who was believed to have drowned and Tukiman Misapan, 60 who was pinned underneath the wreckage. Taminah was found quickly but the Tukiman’s body was only extricated 3 hours after the incident. As for the other passengers, 3 were seriously injured, 17 had minor injuries and 19 were unhurt.

On 12th April 2008, Sabah Railway Department director James Wong was reported to have revealed that his department’s technicians had done their daily routine maintenance checks along the rail tracks between 2.35pm and 2.50pm that fateful day and found nothing amiss: no warning signs of instability etc. Still, half an hour later, the worst happened.

Sabah’s 134km railway track is unique in that it is the only railway service operating in Borneo.

Here are some photos – courtesy of a Little Bird.

I suppose it’s not really appropriate to say this now, but the sight of those railcars in action immediately makes me visualise them as perfect supplements to a weight loss program.

Source
Newsreports in the Daily Express, New Straits Times & The Star

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