Cars and restaurants don’t mix. One is a place to get your fried chicken fix and maybe “Stone Water” from the ice cream machine, and the other is a two-ton missile that just happens to have seats in the back. Eating fried chicken has risks associated with it other than an imbalanced diet.
With restaurants, roads, and parking lots so intimately chained together, however, it was an inevitability that a car would end up in a KFC, just like that time a Proton Saga driven by a 90-year-old. On the night of 8th May in Setiawan, Perak, a KFC near a main street traffic light intersection was blown wide open by a white Volvo SUV. The vehicle was reportedly driven by a 29-year-old lawyer who lost control after passing through the traffic lights.
While it is not known as to why the car lost control, the chaos it left behind drew a large crowd. Tragically, the incident took the life of a 73-year-old woman and injured seven others, including a child. The group included two adult men, three adult women (one of whom was reportedly an elderly), and a young girl, aged 3 to 4. All victims were rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.
According to Manjung district police chief ACP Hasbullah Abd Rahman, the crash occurred at around 9:05pm at the traffic light intersection along Jalan Sitiawan–Lumut, right in front of the KFC restaurant. The vehicle was heading from Kampung Koh towards Sungai Wangi when it allegedly lost control, veered sharply to the right, and rammed through the front of the restaurant.
The driver himself suffered minor injuries and is now in police custody, being investigated under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987, which deals with causing death by reckless or dangerous driving. Police are currently urging witnesses to come forward to aid the investigation.
If you saw the incident or have dashcam footage, you’re asked to contact Insp Nur Syafiqah Baharudin at 012-637 5962 or 05-689 9072. At the same time, we extend our condolences to the family of the deceased, and we wish the other victims a smooth recovery.
Gan contributed to this article.
