Soldier Mohamad Zahidin Abd Rahim will live to regret not returning his father’s call

Saturday, 5 November 2016
‘I wish I had returned father’s call’





KLANG: Soldier Mohamad Zahidin Abd Rahim will live to regret not returning his father’s call. The next day, his father was killed in a freak accident when a pile driver toppled onto his car.

“I should have returned his call when I saw the missed call. But it was a hectic day at work and I did not make it in time to call him back.

“Now that my father is gone, I am absolutely gutted and filled with regret,” Mohamed Zahidin said when met at the Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah mortuary here yesterday.

Mohamad Zahidin’s father, Abd Rahim Abd Rahman, 51, and stepmother Nurhayati Rosli, 46, were killed in a freak accident when a pile driver collapsed and hit the car they were in on Persiaran Astana in Bandar Bukit Raja, Meru near here at around 12.30pm yesterday.

The pile driver, which was being used on a construction site on their right, fell directly onto their Perodua Axia, killing them immediately.

Mohamad Zahidin, 32, who is attached with the Army’s Wisma Transit in Kuala Lumpur, said he last saw his father a week ago when he was asked to send his father’s old Volvo car for repair.

According to the couple’s son-in-law Adik Cendera Shahril, 31, his parents-in-law lived in Jalan Genting Klang in Setapak and had just delivered fresh ingredients to a food kiosk they owned at the food court of a hypermaket in Setia Alam.

“They owned two food kiosks in Kuala Lumpur and Setia Alam and it had been their daily routine to make the deliveries.

“My wife helps around at the Setia Alam kiosk, and at the time of the accident, my in-laws had just left the kiosk and were on their way to a mosque near Bandar Bukit Raja to perform their Friday prayers,” he said.

It is learned that Abd Rahim married Nurhayati, a divorcee from Indonesia, more than 15 years ago as his second wife. The couple have no children together.

Abd Rahim is survived by his first wife, aged 48, and their seven sons, aged between 13 and 32, while Nurhayati is survived by three children in their 20s and 30s from her previous marriage.

Their remains were sent to Abd Rahim’s village at Felda Titi in Jelebu, Negri Sembilan, for burial last night.

Meanwhile, West Coast Expressway Sdn Bhd (WCE), the concessionaire of the West Coast Expressway project, confirmed that the accident took place at Section 5 of the expressway project, which is currently under construction.

“The boom median of a hydraulic spun pile machine at the site had overturned and fallen onto a passing car along Persiaran Astana.

“Work at the site has been ordered to stop immediately and we regret this unfortunate accident,” it said in a statement.

WCE noted that it was now focused on assisting the next of kin of the victims.

“We are working closely with the authorities on investigations into the accident,” it added.