theSun | WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17 2008 9

news without borders

Suspect held over ‘Unsafe’ helmets to be

banned under new law

killing of Sri Lankan

KAJANG: A suspect was
arrested over a vicious gang
attack on a group of students
which resulted in a Sri Lankan
being killed in Semenyih on
Nov 26.
However, he was freed
on police bail because one
of the victims was unable
to positively identify the
alleged attacker despite three
attempts, said police.
Federal CID Director
Commissioner Datuk Mohd
Bakri Zinin said police
began investigations into the
case soon after receiving a
report from the University of
Nottingham Malaysia campus
in Jalan Broga, Semenyih,
where the victims were
studying.
Another Sri Lankan and
three other students, including
Malaysian M. Senthuran,
suffered serious slash wounds
in the parang attack by 10 men
who came in three cars.
Two days after the attack,
Senthuran’s father had
expressed unhappiness with
the lack of progress of police
investigations. However, Mohd
Bakri said yesterday that
Senthuran had lodged a police
report on Nov 27 in Petaling
Jaya and police went to his
house to record his statement
on Nov 30. The suspect was
arrested soon after that. He
said Senthuran was called in
thrice to identity the suspect in
identification parades between
Dec 3 and 9 but he was unable
to pick out the man.
Mohd Bakri said police
submitted their findings to the
Attorney-General’s Chambers
and on Dec 11 the suspect was
freed on bail.
He said the case was still
under investigation and police
were looking for fresh leads.
Mohd Bakri was
commenting on a report on
Monday in theSun which
quoted Senthuran’s father Dr
M. Mohan as urging police
to act with more urgency on
the case. Mohd Bakri said the
report had affected the image
of the police and had put them
in bad light.
He said the story was
outdated and had led to
several people including
non-governmental
organisations questioning
the police for allegedly not
acting accordingly in the case
although investigators had
acted promptly.
Editor: The report “Witnesses
not contacted: Attack victim’s
dad” (Dec 15, page 14) was
a holdover story written on
Nov 30. It was inadvertently
published without the facts
of the case being updated. We
apologise to the police and
other parties concerned for the
embarrassment caused by its
publication.
KUALA LUMPUR: The
Road Safety Department is
formalising a new law that
prohibits the sale of motor-
cycle helmets that do not
meet safety requirements.
Its director-general,
Datuk Suret Singh, said the
new law would allow the
authorities to confiscate
such helmets as it is against
the law to wear them.
He also advised mo-
torcyclists to change their
helmets every five years
because of wear and tear.
“The helmet is meant
to be an external shell to
protect the rider’s skull,” he
said at the soft launch of the
Malaysian International Road
Safety Exhibition (Mirex)
2009 at the Mines Resort
here yesterday.
The exhibition will be
held at Malaysia Internation-
al Exhibition & Convention
Centre (MIECC) from June
25-28 next year.
Suret urged motorcy-
clists to wear helmets that
are labelled to meet the
approved safety standards.
“Helmets that do not
meet safety requirements
have a higher chance of caused by the lack of small
breaking upon impact in an motor lanes in the country.
accident or collision,” he Noting that the lack of
said. developed motor lanes
He said it was important has forced motorcyclists
for road users to realise to use the main roads and
that buckling up and wear- highways, he said: “We have
ing helmets are for their failed to look into this issue
own safety, and not just to seriously.”
abide by the law. “We want Currently, there are about
this to be a mindset and a 17 road fatalities a day, most
culture,” he added. As such, of whom are motorcyclists.
the department is focused
on educating
schoolchil-
dren to instill
the impor-
tance of road
safety from
young.
S u r e t
also said the
increase in
motorcycle
accidents and
deaths is partly
Mirex 09
project
manager
Vivienne
Ng with an
exhibition
pamphlet.