Tragic end to joyride
By ANDREW SAGAYAM
KUALA LUMPUR: Another joyride incident turned tragic for four friends when three of them died and the fourth was seriously injured when their Mercedes Benz crashed into a luxury apartment guard house.
M. Matthew Savari, 31, the driver of the S350L class car, A. Kumaravel, 30, and Nurliana Jamal Khan, 20, died on the spot after suffering severe head injuries. The fourth person in the car - Richard Dass Augustin, 20 - who was sitting in the front passenger seat, suffered serious leg injuries. He was rushed to Kuala Lumpur Hospital (KLH) where he is warded.
The bodies of Savari, Kumaravel and Nurliana have been sent to KLH for a post-mortem.
In the 5.30am incident today, the four were on their way home when Matthew was believed to have lost control of the car after he turned into Jalan Tun Razak from Bulatan Kampung Pandan.
The metallic black vehicle rammed into an advertisement board and a tree before it crashed into a guard house in front of a luxury apartment block.
All three men lived in the city while Nurliana was from Penang.
This is the second fatal accident in two days involving luxury cars at the same road stretch.
At 12.30am yesterday, Chong Wai Hon, 23, from Wangsa Maju died on the spot when the Porsche Carrera he was in crashed inside a tunnel on Jalan Tun Razak.
Chong, who operates a stall with his family, suffered severe head injuries and was taken to KLH for a post-mortem.
His two friends, also in the car, have been identified as Wong Lam Kit, 23, who was the driver, and Chin Wai Keong, 28, a mechanic from Setapak.
Initial investigations revealed Wong lost control of the car in the tunnel and the car crashed into a wall.
City traffic police (acting traffic investigations division head) Asst Supt Rizal Abdul Rahman Sidek confirmed that in both cases the vehicles did not belong to the driver or its passengers.
"We will investigate if they had taken the car without the permission of the owner. We have yet to ascertain the cause of the accident which we believe is due to negligence," ASP Rizal said.
