A man narrowly escaped death when his luxury BMW Z4 was completely destroyed alongside a tanker lorry in a crash at Kilometer 199.7 of the northbound PLUS Highway in Ayer Keroh this afternoon.
“Luckily, when the car tire went flat, I chose to wait by the side of the highway under the scorching sun; otherwise, I might have died,” Tan Hong Ta, 36, told MalaysiaGazatte.
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Recalling the moments before the incident at around 2.40pm, he said he was on his way to Kuala Lumpur when his tire went flat at the accident site.
“After stepping out of the car, I called for a tow truck and waited by the side of the highway for almost two hours because I knew it was dangerous to remain in the car if it were hit by another vehicle.
“I didn’t expect my instincts to be so accurate because, as soon as the tow truck arrived, a trailer rammed into another tanker carrying cooking oil, causing it to catch fire right next to my car.
“Without hesitation, I ran about 100 metres along the side of the highway while hearing several explosions from the tanker,” he said.
Tan, a factory manager in Johor, said that although he suffered property loss, he was grateful he made the right choice by waiting on the side of the highway.
It was reported previously that a tanker lorry driver sustained 40% burns after his vehicle caught fire along with the luxury car.
The incident, which went viral on social media, caused a traffic jam stretching over five kilometers as the left and middle lanes of the highway were completely closed.