KUALA LUMPUR - The rerouting of several police escorts in a convoy prior to the accident involving 14 vehicles that claimed two lives in Putrajaya on Wednesday was carried out in accordance with the standard operating procedure (SOP).
Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Allaudeen Abdul Majid said the accident should not occur as the route at kilometre 5.7 from IOI City Mall Putrajaya headed to Presint 12 was not busy, although there was a rerouting of the convoy.
"Looking at the video recordings of the accident, the reroute by police of the convoy followed the right SOPs.
"Almost all vehicles stopped, but the driver continued driving through.
"Police is carrying out investigations to see whether there was negligence or technical issues,” he said in a press conference on Thursday.
He said this after inspecting the implementation of the Kuala Lumpur Police Highway Law Enforcement Operations, which began on Sept 15.
The incident on Wednesday involved a lorry carrying a load of concrete crashing into 13 vehicles, namely a lorry, seven vehicles, and the rest were motorcycles, including a police motorcycle.
Two riders tragically died in the incident.
Commenting further, Allaudeen said police opened an investigation paper on the accident under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987.
"The lorry driver was arrested and will be remanded on Thursday to assist in the investigations.
"The suspect was expected to be remanded for seven days,” he said.
On whether the accident was due to technical issues, he said he was waiting for a report from the Road Transport Department (RTD) and Puspakom.
"Police believed there was a possibility of negligence by the driver, but we must ensure thorough investigations were done before making a conclusion regarding the real reason for the accident.
"That’s why I would like to remind all drivers to be responsible on the road,” he said.