KUALA LUMPUR: Less than a week after a minister was injured after falling into pothole in a cycling accident in Banting, a far worse tragedy occurred when a 75-year-old motorcyclist was killed after he crashed into a pothole here.
Kuala Lumpur Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department (JSPT) chief Assistant Commissioner Zulkefly Yahya said the 7.30am incident occurred when the victim, Ho Yan Fee was riding from Taman Connaught to Mid Valley.
Ho was coming from the direction of Pandan Perdana and plying through the middle lane of a three-lane stretch when he crashed into the pothole.
The impact caused Ho to be thrown off his motorcycle, and he landed about 30m away.
"Initial investigations revealed that the crash did not involve other vehicles. Checks at the scene showed that the accident was caused by the pothole in the centre lane," he said, adding the victim died at the scene.
Zulkefly said Ho's remains were taken to the UKM Canselor Tuanku Muhriz Hospital for postmortem.
The incident is one of many accidents and deaths in Malaysia which were due to potholes and poor roadworks.
Following the previous road mishap involving the minister, on Dec 31, the Works Ministry, through the Public Works Department (PWD) promised it will repair potholes within 24 hours, as it reintroduced the "Aku Janji Zero Potholes" campaign.
In a statement, the ministry said the previous "Aku Janji Zero Potholes" campaign ran from 2016 to 2018 and it was reintroduced recently following the incident where Science and Technology Minister Khairy Jamaluddin was injured while cycling at Jalan Kampung Sri Cheeding in Banting.
Under this campaign, pothole repairs will be done within 24 hours of discovery or complaint, while permanent repairs will be done in three days as stated in the Federal Road Maintenance contract.
The statement defined pothole damage for any pot hole with diameters of 200 to 1,000 milimetres (mm).