Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Bridge Tragedy: 22 Children Feared Perished

This is really so sad. I feel so sad.

And angry...

How could this have happened?

My prayers for them all.....

UPDATE - Thursday Oct 29 2009

The bodies of the 2 missing girls have been found.
M. Devatharshini’s body was found by a search and rescue team from Rela at about 11.30pm on Wednesday (Oct 28) , the body of V. Divyashree, 12, was recovered at about 9.25am the following day (Oct 29) by a team from the army.

My heartfelt condolences to the families of the three children who perished in the tragedy.

UPDATE:

19 alive, one died and 2 missing.

Please God...let them be ok.

ORIGINAL POSTING :

Twenty two pupils, aged between 10 and 12, were believed to have drowned after they were swept away by strong currents when they fell into the Kampar river in Perak (Monday) last night. As of 5am this morning, none of them have been found.

They were among 298 other pupils who were part of a four-day motivational programme comprising 60 schools from the Kinta Selatan district.

The children were in the midst of crossing a 30m hanging bridge, to get across Sungai Kampar, when the bridge suddenly collapsed.

Thirty of the pupils were crossing the bridge when it gave way and 22 of them plunged into the river, while the rest managed to escape to safety.

Continue reading here...

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

tragedi kem 1 malaysia

kroni buat projek jambatan

habis runtuh

nasib kat manik urai tak jadi buat jambatan

jibam

al fatihah buat yang telah pergi

Old Fart said...

I am not even a seasoned tracker, yet I have tracked some treacherous routes in and out of the country. And one thing I know from these tracks, when especially you are off the beaten tracks, you make camp before sun down. What were these kids doing crossing a bridge at 10.00pm?

Another, 1 teacher to 25 kids ratio? this would be totally unacceptable in most western countries. the camp itself would not have been proceeded with.

There could be criminal elements in the cause of this tragedy. Another thing, a bridge that was completed only 2 weeks , breaking down like this? What kind of approval did it have to permit organised groupings such as this to walk over it? What actions were undertaken by those organising this camp to ensure the tracks used, the bridges to be crossed etc were safe, were approved, etc? Do we know that the specifications for the bridge was approved by state authorities? Do we know if the contractor who built the bridge built according to specifications or did he short change?

For anyone to call this a tragedy or an accident I hope they will hold their tongue first, before we establish that indeed it was a tragedy. Otherwise it is a reckless blunder just waiting to happen!! And it could have been avoided.

mad1 said...

i'm not an engineer but judging from the size of the supporting tower, it does look tiny to support a long suspension bridge. in some pictures from the internet i could see the other tower on the other side quite far away.

Anonymous said...

This is how when .......... lead a team on a bridge built by .......

Anonymous said...

Same old story...
Rakyat mati and mati and mati...
Tragedy after tragedy...
No one want to take responsibility.
Only know how to say sorry...
Then same old story...
Again will jadi...
You don't believe me...
Wait and see...

Anonymous said...

I was in the army (mssg) and agree with old fart:

1) Make camp before sundown (for beginners)

2) 1:25 teacher:student ratio unacceptable.

3) 2 weeks bridge completion (and maybe poor craftsmanship) unacceptable.


But who am i to talk? Our helicopters and planes fall out of the sky. Do you think they give a damn about schoolchildren?

Anonymous said...

2 kids still missing,we are very very sorry to hear this and all shd pray for their safety.It's a very sad day for Malaysia.I hope all our mighty MPs will for once REALLY do something concrete to prevent another child from dying whether in camp or national service.Enough innocent kids died for adults'greed (don't pretend dont know what this means).

Anonymous said...

DPM shouldn't appear wearing a cowboy hat. Looks inappropriate to put it mildly so that this comment is not censored.

bagak... said...

satu lagi projek kerajaan BN

Anonymous said...

Typical civil service mentality. Must send our kids and youths for motivational course, this kursus, that kursus, so that the people in the department look active and busy. Everything looks good on paper, from tujuan dan matlamat to jadual dan atucara to majlis perasmian. When it comes to implementation, koyak big time. I am sure some of the pegawai pendidikan in Perak have masters degree, or even PhD. Porah!

Nacaleb

Anonymous said...

Agree with Old Fart.
my bit...
I sincerely condemn this tragedy, particularly when I read about the bridge condition before it
collapsed. The newly-built aspect, it does matter enough to upset me.

However, either the new-built one or not, sensitivity characteristics of the bridge should be emphasized to the public. This is a special bridge; I must say it very loudly.

Generally, from physics together with mathematics points of view (although sometimes physicists go against the mathematical stuffs), this bridge is so extremely
sensitive to swing activity. Even the smallest swing could cause big amplitude vibration. Like I said, this is the special bridge.
[One can read about it under mechanical resonance/aerolastic wave topic]

I’ve learned that before the bridge collapsed, the students were playing and jumping on it and the bridge goyang goyang a lot – this as well does matter enough to upset me. But budak budak kan…

Regarding providing an extreme warning about the sensitivity characteristics of the bridge, I don’t know…
Mungkin para jurutera telah memberi amaran kepada para guru. Mungkin tidak.
Mungkin para guru telah memberi amaran kepada para pelajar. Mungkin tidak.
Mungkin semua pelajar mendengar nasihat guru. Mungkin tidak.

These mungkin, mungkin and mungkin things, it’s between the jurutera, the guru and the pelajar and I know nothing about it and I hate to make assumptions unless I got a number of solid proofs/facts.
I am a mathematician (right now doing something that’s related to bacteria/fungal for anti-biotic/anti-drug development). My job is taking care about internal aspects very firmly, bit by bit. Basically my job helps me to understand that there are some lousy people in the government, but not all of them. I condemn this tragedy although my conclusion is not ‘ini BN punya pasal lah’. Yes, convincing the rakyat is the hardest part. BN/PR itself is full of different people with different character/mindset -the lousy ones should be spanked very hard..Bollocks!. Same thing holds for the rakyat – different character/mindset.

On top of all, my No.1 upset is:
Kenapa gedik sangat pilih jambatan/tempat ini? Dah tak ada ke jambatan/tempat gerek yang lain lagi? Haih!

R.I.P

laimun said...

For us who are not parents of those who perished will never really touch the deep end of sorrow despite our cries of agony and sympathy. This is not to say that we do not sincerely care. We do. For the majority of us, who are not directly involved, the day the media stop reporting on the tragedy, it is back to business as normal. For those whose children attended the camp but were not on the bridge shall forever be extra vigilant on any request for approval for future outings. And for parents whose child fell into the river but survived will never forget this day for the rest of their lives.

The blame game starts.
• 1Malaysia has already been bandied as the cause. Those who are against the BN suggested that these outings by the very young were unnecessary and merely for political mileage.
• The school was at fault for not checking on the area for any unforeseen calamities.
• Not enough teachers to students’ ratio.
• Nobody checked on the condition of the bridge.
• The DPM cum Minister of Education’s remarks were unbecoming.
• Etc, etc, etc.

For those who already have unsavory lawyers clamoring at their doorsteps to sue the government for negligence should take a step back and reconsider. Participating students were given letters seeking parents’ approval to attend, even though some were shown on national TV to vehemently claiming otherwise.

Children being children, even in the safe confines of home do not listen all the time to what parents tell them to avoid.

Probably, an adult or two should have been at the bridge when students were crossing. This was a major factor and inescapable management error on part of the school.

The condition and construction of the bridge holds the answer to the tragedy.

The culprits have to be exposed and charged. If not today, tomorrow or even 6 months down the line. Whoever they are, there must be closure.

We do not want 3 years later; the parents of those who died are still looking for justice.

Anonymous said...

The symbolic meaning of the bridge collapse and loss of life may speak volumes about the vision.

A sign from God?

Anonymous said...

This gives new meaning to the term 'death camps'.

For goodness sake, what happened to good old fashion schooling of yesteryears? In fact, kids turned out much better back then. Whose bright idea was it anyway to have all these 'motivational' this and that?

selampit said...

One child is dead, while two children are still missing.

THESE ARE CHILDREN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT.

And some jerks would blame the children for 'playing' and 'thumping' on the bridge.

They're children, what do you expect, that they march forward steadfastly like soldiers?

This is A VERY SERIOUS matter, and I hope the responsible authorities would investigate this tragedy thoroughly, and that the government WOULD TAKE STERN PUNITIVE action against those responsible.

As a parent, I STRONGLY URGE the government to do its best to ensure the safety of our children when they are placed in the care of any government agency or body.

I for one, would be out of my friggin' mind to allow my children to play near a river at nighttime WITH OR WITHOUT adult supervision FOR WHATEVER REASON.

Anonymous said...

Just read about the death of one of the victims' father who couldn't take it anymore.Oh, God! This is indeed a tragedy.I only have these to ask: What were the children doing on the bridge at 10.00pm? Where were the camp commandant and teachers? Who approved the usage of the bridge only two weeks after completion? Maybe next time I'll share my experience as a speaker in motivational camps. You'll be shocked to find more truths. NAMAN

Anonymous said...

This incident and so many 'incidents', 'accidents' and 'tragedies' makes me a firm believer that Malaysia is still a third world country. I'm sorry, but it's just the lack of responsibility, the inhumanity and the lack of social etiquette that makes this country very far behind a first world country. Either we have a very long way to go or we have set on a totally different direction towards self-interest, selfishness, and total callousness. A path that favours monetary and power plays instead of humanity.

Anonymous said...

I have a suggestion, why don't we put our kids to work? For free!! They can build bridges, roads, schools, houses, apartments! We can call it 'Kem membina semangat sambil belajar sambil menguntungkan 1 negara!'

Quick! Let's call for a meeting! Somebody ring a 8 star hotel overseas and make reservations!

Old Fart said...

This happened because someone decided 1Malaysia would be a useful excuse.
Someone decided that 1Malaysia should not just be a catch phrase, that is should be put to action.
Someone decided that primary school kids should be packed off to camps.
Someone decided there was money to be made transporting, feeding, housing and entertaining these kids.
Someone decided that when done across the country there can be a lot to be made.
Someone decided the camp site for kids in Kampar.
Someone decided that a suspension bridge ought to be built. Someone decided a certain engineer be hired to design the bridge and that a certain contractor be given the job to build it. Someone decided that that was all that was necessary to build a suspension bridge. Someone decided that it was built according to plan and gave it the required approval. Or maybe someone decided it was not necessary to for any approvals. Some one decided that it was not necessary to subject the bridge to certain tests. Someone decided that suspension bridges do not have to have any rules for the use of it.Someone decided that 25 students or so to a student was a good number for teachers to manage. Some one decided that it was not necessary to instruct or caution the students about the use of the bridge.Someone decided to let the students jump and play on the bridge. Someone decided the good time for students to have supper would be past bed time. Someone decided that supper should be going across this bridge well past bed time to the place where meals were served. Someone f@#$%d up!!

atanjamilselamat said...

whose to blame? many point their fingers to the teachers but this is not fair. no teachers would want harm to befall their pupils. Blame the fate? But is this just an Easy way out? but what if there are small matter of ignorance on the part of the pupils? It was reported that the children were all jumping up and down on the bridge. Too excited maybe.

Kaffeeklatch-nista said...

Peace be upon them. Hope this wont happen again in the future...