The metal pillar anchoring the cable of the collapsed Kuala Dipang suspension bridge incident which took three young lives on Oct 26 had broken off from its concrete foundation causing the walkway to fall into the Kampar River.

NONE This was revealed by the preliminary findings of the Perak Pakatan ad hoc investigation team which found a weakness in the concrete foundation of anchor block B (see sketch).

Ousted Pakatan state speaker V Sivakumar heads the team of three comprising Chang Lih Kang (PKR Teja assemblyperson), Thomas Su (DAP Pasir Pinji) and Khalil Idham Lim Abdullah (PAS Titi Serong).

At a press conference held at the PAS state headquarters yesterday, Su said: "Our initial finding is that the foundation of the anchor block B is very shallow only 2.8 ft deep whereas the actual depth should, according to the chartered consultant structural engineer, be about 10 times that depth."

NONE He showed Malaysiakini a sketch of the foundation block B with a height of 5'10" , width of 2' 3" and depth of 2'8".

According to the Pasir Pinji assemblyperson, the anchor block B should have been the size of a container.

"Furthermore the initial soil testing done by a civil engineer yesterday (Tuesday) at the bank where the tragedy took place showed that the soil there is very soft.

"This is the preliminary findings of the collapsed bridge tragedy and the final findings report will be ready by the weekend and we hope to reveal the full details on Monday," he said.

Education Dept unaware of bridge

Earlier during the same press conference, Sivakumar said they interviewed Kinta Selatan district education officer Raja Abdul Raman Raja Amaran on Tuesday.

NONE "The surprising fact is that his department was not aware that a suspension bridge had been built by a contractor linking SK Kuala Dipang with the 1Malaysia camp site across the Kampar River," he said.

"Pupils of SK Sentosa were the first to notice the suspension bridge when they camped at the site on Oct 9. The school notified Raja Abdul Rahman who visited the site on Oct 16 (10 days before the collapse)," he added.

Sivakumar said the education officer told him that a party had approached him early last month with a proposal for a bridge but the project was put on hold because it was deemed too costly at RM110,000.

Raja had informed Sivakumar that the directive to build the bridge came from the Co-curriculum Centre in Pangor Island.

The committee will call on the centre at Pangor Island today to gather details on construction of the bridge and contractor’s identity, said Sivakumar.

NONE Raja also had stated that initially he had directed 40 teachers to attend the 1Malaysia camp but only 23 turned up for the four-day event.

Asked why 20 of the teachers were holding a meeting when 22 children were on the bridge at 10.30am on that day, according to Sivakumar, Raja had replied, "They (teachers) were within the vicinity of the camp area."

Raja had also revealed that initially the camp was to have 300 primary school children with 100 from each race from the 64 primary schools (nine Tamil schools, 22 Chinese schools and 43 Malay schools) located in his district.

However, only 298 primary pupils turned up for the camp organised by the Education Ministry aimed at fostering better ties among the races.

RM100 million lawsuit next week

This ill-fated event was originally organised for August but the H1N1 flu scare postponed it to Oct 26.

On the day the bridge collapsed, 22 pupils fell into the river but 19 were saved by the teachers and the two security guards at the camp.

However, three girls N Dina Deve and M Davadharshini both 11, from SJK (T) Mambang Diawan and V Diviyasri, 12, of SJK (T) Gopeng drowned and their bodies were recovered later by rescue teams.

NONE Sivakumar wants members of the public who have further information on the tragic incident to come forward to Hotel Grand Kampar between 10am to 1pm on Saturday, where the team will be wrapping up their investigation.

They can contact PKR state vice chairperson Chang on his mobile phone No: 012-5173067 for further details.

According to A Sivanesan, the lawyer representing the parents of the three deceased school girls, a RM100 million negligence suit will be filed next week against the parties involved in the tragedy.