KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (UPDATED) – Five members of the Philippine squash team, along with other athletes from Thailand and Myanmar, were involved in a bus crash on Monday morning, August 21.
According to a statement released by the MASOC Sports & Technical Committee, the teams were being transported from their hotel to their competition venue when the crash occured.
No one from the Philippine team was hurt, confirmed Dr. Ferdinand Brawner, the Philippine delegation’s chief physical therapist, emphasizing that there’s “no cause for panic.” Although there are others are still getting checked out.
“The MASOC Medical Committee is attending to the medical situation; some of the affected athletes/officials are being attended to at the Games Medical Centre (GMC),” MASOC or Malaysian Organizing Committee said in the statement.
“We are relieved to learn that some of the athletes and officials have been cleared to compete by their own team doctor after undergoing medical examination.”
Photos of the damaged buses surfaced online.
Bus carrying SEA Games squash players in accidenthttps://t.co/XG6iX6dYg9 pic.twitter.com/DG2HwY9xyL
— The Star (@staronline) August 21, 2017
Team manager Vince Abad Santos explained that their bus was “bumped from behind by the other bus very fast because the driver apparently was unable to step on the brakes on time.”
The Filipino athletes in the incident are Reymark Bigornia, David William Paulino, Juan Rafael Yam, and Robert Andrew Garcia.
“It’s a good thing that nobody among our team was injured because they were in front of the bus,” squash head Robert Bachmann said.
In the meantime, matches for the teams involved in the accident have been suspended with team managers set to agree on re-scheduling.
The Royal Malaysian Police and the Road Transport Department are said to be investigating the incident. – Rappler.com
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