Lorry in M’sia with raised cargo bed topples telephone poles, smashing vehicles & damaging equipment

Lorry with raised cargo bed tears down telephone poles in Malaysia

A lorry with a raised cargo bed tore down over a dozen telephone poles while driving through a shophouse area in Penang, Malaysia on Monday evening (25 Nov).

As a result, the fallen poles smashed a car and a motorcycle parked in the area, as well as hit four air conditioning compressors.

One of the poles was even uprooted and dragged for 10 metres, Sin Chew Daily reported.

Incident caught on CCTV

An owner of a motorcycle shop named Mr Yang Ziyi (transliterated) told Sin Chew Daily that while no one was at his store at the time, their CCTV camera had caught the incident.

“Since the incident happened at around 11pm, many shops had already closed, but the stir-fry shop next door was still open. They heard a loud noise coming from the back alley and a lorry passed by the shop,” he said.

According to CCTV footage, the lorry’s raised cargo bed may have hooked onto power lines on the roads, causing the poles to fall.

In one of the clips, the sound of poles falling as the vehicle drove by could be heard from surveillance footage as power lines shook.

The police had also copied the CCTV footage on the same evening, Mr Yang stated.

Losses estimated to cost S$3,006

The incident caused a telecommunications outage that even affected one college.

The vehicles smashed are also believed to be owned by students boarding at the school.

Mr Yang shared that the telecommunications company said the damage would take 20 days to repair, which he expects to affect his business’ operations.

Air conditioning compressors and signboards at a back alley were also hit when the wires were pulled and the loss is estimated to be about RM 10,000 (S$3,006).

The captain of the patrol team in the area, Mr Tan Choon Soon (transliterated) said he believes that the lorry’s strong pull caused telephone poles on both sides of the road to fall like dominoes.

Subsequently, this damaged vehicles and equipment that were in the back alleys.

He called on shop owners who had lost property due to the incident to file a report to the police so they could investigate.

Also read: Man in Taiwan crushed by falling utility pole, he was buying dinner for family

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Featured image adapted from Sin Chew Daily