Six people were injured, two of them with fractured ribs, when a double-decker express bus skidded and hit a hillside at Km363 of Jalan Raub-Bentong at dawn today.     

Raub police chief Supt Wan Mohd Samsuddin Wan Osman said the Mahligai express bus ferrying 39 passengers was on its way to Kuala Lumpur from Kota Baharu when the accident occurred at 5.30am.     

He said the victims with fractured ribs were admitted to the Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital in Temerloh while four other injured passengers were treated at the Raub Hospital.     

The bus driver was tested negative for drugs, he added.   

Simpang Pulai accident claims another life

Meanwhile another victim of the freak bus accident in Simpang Pulai, Perak last Monday died today, bringing the death toll to 28.    

Ipoh Public Order and Traffic police chief DSP Mohd Rodzi Rejab said that 59-year-old Duranee Songsern, whose Muslim name is Dariah Ismail, died at 2.26pm at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital here.    

Arrangements were being made to send her body back to Thailand.    

Darunee, who had come to Malaysia to visit Cameron Highlands, had been treated in the Intensive Care Unit.    

Mohd Rodzi said that only two other victims were being treated at the hospital.    

"There were six previously but one died, two were relocated to the Hatyai Hospital yesterday and Friday," he said.    

Meanwhile, Duranee's eldest child, Faisal Ismail, 40, said his mother will be buried in Kampung Nyaring, Pattani, either tonight or tomorrow morning.     

"I am waiting for the documents allowing the body to pass through the Malaysia-Thailand border in Bukit Kayu Hitam," he said.    

In the incident last Monday, a bus ferrying Thai tourists skidded and overturned at 15km of Jalan Cameron Highlands-Simpang Pulai. Two malaysians were among the dead.    

The bodies of 25 Thai tourists and one injured were sent home on two Royal Thai Air Force aircraft from Subang on Wednesday, while three injured were relocated to the Hatyai Hospital by land.          

Mersing ferry capsises, three dead

While in Mersing, three people died and two others were missing after a wooden boat carrying 29 tourists overturned about 300 metres from the Tanjung Leman jetty today.    

Mersing police chief DSP Mohd Nor Rashid said the incident occurred at about 1.30pm when the boat carrying nine local residents, 19 Singaporeans and a Chinese national was heading to the jetty from a fishing platform in Pulau Sibu.    

The dead were identified as Low Li Jun, 33, Chua Lim Khoon, 45, and Adrian Tan, 67, all from Singapore.    

Mohd Nor told reporters that their bodies had been taken to Mersing Hospital for post-mortem.    

He said the two missing were Kian Tek Eng, 44, and Tor Soon Kwee, 41, also from Singapore.    

He said initial investigations indicated that strong waves had hit the boat causing all the victims to fall into the sea.    

The investigations also revealed that the wooden boat, 12 metres long and 10 metres wide, was carrying more than the permitted 12 passengers and no one on board had a life jacket on, he said.    

Mohd Nor said the skipper and the operator of the boat, aged 67 and 58, had been arrested to assist in investigations.    

The Maritime Enforcement Agency, Civil Defence Department, Marine Police and Armed Forces are helping in the search for the missing two.  

- Bernama