SBS Bus 160 driver slashed with parang

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February 11th, 2009 stephen.wong

In another incident that is hard to swallow, a SBS Bus 160 Driver was slashed with parang by a man after driving the bus out of Kotaraya shopping center last evening.

In case you are not aware where Kotaraya Shopping Center is, it is less than 500m from City Square!!

It was believed that the incident happened while the driver was trying to close the bus doors to prevent a robbery by a few attackers. He was slashed by one of the attackers in the process. The driver, reportedly a Singapore PR in his thirties was immediately taken to a hospital in Johor in the interim and will be transferred to Singapore. Attackers are still at large.

After our posting on a supermarket robbery here, we now have another incident right within Johor Bahru city area. This begs the question of where else is safe in Johor Bahru.. will we be robbed right within City Square in future?

Not discouraging anyone from visiting JB but do pay attention to your safety when you are here.

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Entry Filed under: Crime and Safety

6 Comments Add your own

1. ONG.K.Y | February 11th, 2009 at 10:30 AM

I still find such incidents unbelieveable. I have been to Kotaraya a couple of times and i see it as a crowded place even if there are a lot of foreign workers. How can such an incident happen here?

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2. admin | February 12th, 2009 at 12:17 AM

From the Straits Times:

A ROUTINE trip proved to be perilious for SBS bus captain Ngieng Pik Chung, when he was viciously attacked by two parang-wielding men on Tuesday afternoon.
The 29-year-old man drives bus service 160, which travels the route between Singapore and Johor Baru.

On Tuesday afternoon, around 3.45pm, the bus was returning from Kotaraya II terminal in Johor Baru, with five passengers, including two men, who had boarded the bus at the terminal.

Less than five minutes into the journey, outside the Danga City mall, the men approached a passenger – a middle-aged woman who was sitting alone.

They threatened her with their parangs and demanded that she hand over her money. She screamed, attracting the attention of Mr Ngieng. From where he was seated, he shouted at them to stop, but things got ugly when they suddently turned on him.

Demanding he bring the bus to a halt, they forced him to hand over his wallet, which contained RM$260, S$40 and all his personal documents. Once he had given it to them, the men slashed him and fled the scene.

Mr Ngieng suffered deep gashes to his left shoulder and fractured his left wrist. Bleeding heavily, he managed to drive his bus to the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex, about 1km away.

Malaysian traffic police on duty there took Mr Ngieng straight to Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Baru, where he remained until he was transferred to the National University Hospital in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

When The Straits Times paid him a visit on Wednesday, the Singapore permanent resident who has been working with SBS Transit as a bus captain for the past eight years, had just emerged from surgery.

Though groggy and unable to talk much, Mr Ngieng managed to crack a smile for the steady stream of colleagues who came to visit.

A fellow bus captain described Mr Ngieng as ‘nice, very friendly and on the quiet side.

‘I couldn’t believe the news when I heard it, it was scary. He was really unlucky,’ he said.

Both men responsible for the assault are believed to be Malaysians. The Johor police are investigating the incident.

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3. Eguchi Toshinari | April 6th, 2009 at 4:26 AM

I strongly believe that this incident was the first ever to happen in connection with SBS Transit buses that ply the JB-Singapore routes.

The key words are: “Mr Ngieng was really unlucky”.

Those two criminals might very well have been foreigners who reside in JB. Or, another likely possibility is, they were Malaysians who were very desperate for money.

The locals are not as brazen so as to board a bus, then threaten the passengers with parangs. In fact, I can readily attest that such a thing has rarely, if ever happened with the local buses, operating in and around JB.

Next, Kotaraya II Bus Terminal shouldn’t be mistaken for the Kotaraya shopping mall, situated quite a bit farther away, just next to the The Puteri Pacific Hotel, JB.

Personally, whenever I was at the Kotaraya II Bus Terminal, I found that the place wasn’t as packed with commuters, if compared to the Larkin Bus Terminal. There were even times, when the bus terminal was almost deserted, with few people, apart from the locals who run their businesses there, were around.

I believe, this very factor was the main point that convinced the criminals to choose the bus terminal as their staging point.

Secondly, they must have done their homework beforehand. With only 5 passengers on board the bus — including the 2 criminals — the settings were to their advantage!

I’m certain that, for them to bring along parangs when they boarded the bus seems to indicate that they already knew the small number of passengers that would be on the bus at any given point in time.

My suggestion is, SBS Transit should seriously take this point into consideration.

If the criminals have uncovered the weakness / pattern — ie the small number of passengers, boarding the bus from Kotaraya II Bus Terminal — there is a good chance that, either they, or other groups of criminals would want to repeat such a criminal act in the future.

SBS Transit — you have been warned!

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4. facaichu | December 10th, 2009 at 7:27 PM

go jb must be careful aids robber strike yesterday i went to esso to pump my tyres 2 man 1 tall & 1 short with beard claim tthat they are aids patient needs some help by holding a slop of needle with blood in it relunctly i dig out some notes he ttold mehe is not a begger & ask for more i dig out another 40++ he say some more with the needle closer & the tall guy demand for my wallet i got furious & give him a glance the short guy say just 1last note & u are free to go i pull out another 50 and they let me go wat a damn luck losing 100 ringgit for nothing that esso pump station is beside a shell station next to it near by theres a giant leisure and the oppsite theres a market whereby a happenings occured on sunday by my friends with 2 couple having dinner they park the car thought that is only at the side of the market with so many people so a lady left the bag inthe car the other left a handphone in it within half an hour that car was break in with all items lost poor girl waited 12hrs to come back sg warning to all pls be careful either go with a bunch of bro or stand by sommthing in your car for emergency i learnt my lesson i will go there again to try finding themthis time lastly dun leave things that can be view.

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5. admin | December 14th, 2009 at 12:05 AM

Hi Facaichu, your comments are worrying because I know that the petrol stations you mentioned are usually very crowded.

I pump petrol every weekend and will always keep a lookout everytime I get out/in of the car. Car doors are locked immediately my car door shuts. I leave nothing valuable visible in the car – everything is in the trunk so that I do not tempt a robbery, even a NTUC plastic bag that contains just a copy of the Straits Times.

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6. Lizzie | January 28th, 2010 at 4:14 PM

Whatever it is, JB-PDRM had better buck up and do a better job in sprucing up the image of JB and keep the crime rate in check. I am actually JB born but living in KL for years, now moving to Sg,so I have seen how JB has evolved over the years. It used to be such a decent, reasonably safe place to live, but like most cities, it has its bad hats. Problem, too many legal (and illegal immigrants from lesser neighbouring countries) and perhaps even desperate poor locals or drug addicts.

If JB wants to con’t to attract tourists from across the causeway, it had better seriously do some sprucing up in terms of keeping crime in check. So many of my relatives and friends from Sg all have concerns about driving into JB in their Sg registered vehicles for fear they will be potential target! Who can blame them?! Even I don’t feel quite safe whenever I get back from KL. Maybe JB residents should hold discussions with the MP’s or the MB that there is cause for concern here. Don’t you agree?

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