Former Sultan of Selangor driver suffers broken bones after hit-and-run accident
KLANG: It was quite a tragedy when S. Govinda Rajoo fell victim to a hit-and-run motorist on Jan 31.The 60-year-old father of two had decided to stop work as a driver when he learned he was to become a grandfather in mid-March, but his dreams were shattered when he was knocked down on the Federal Highway.
He is now warded at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang with six broken ribs (which had pierced his lungs), a broken neck, several broken fingers and a brain haemorrhage. Govinda had been personal driver to the late Sultan of Selangor, the late Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, for 25 years, and when he retired, five years ago, he became a part-time driver.
He planned to drop everything and become a full-time grandfather when he learned that his son's wife would be giving birth to a boy next month.
On Jan 31, everything changed.
His son and father-to-be, Anand, 31, told The Malay Mail, yesterday, that his father had collected the RM500 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) at the PKNS Complex in Shah Alam before he met with the accident.
“How could anyone do something like this and run away? Has a person’s life become so cheap?" Govinda had been riding a Kriss Modenas motorcycle with vehicle registration number BGH 9692 when the incident took place.
He said that his father could only move his legs and spoke a bit when he came out of his coma on Sunday.
"He did not have any memory of being hit."
Anand said his family only knew about the accident 24 hours after it had happened.
“My father would usually return home by 5pm. If he was going to be late, he would have told my mother.
"That day, we knew something was wrong when he did not return home after going out at about 1pm. The accident is believed to have taken place between 4.30pm and 5pm."
Anand said he had frantically called his father’s mobile phone but did not get a response until the next day, when a hospital staff answered and broke the news to him.
Anand now wants answers regarding the hit-and-run.
“I was told that a lawyer, who found my dad lying by the road at the southbound Federal Highway after the PKNS complex exit, had called for an ambulance.
"I managed to contact the lawyer and asked him if anyone saw the incident, but he told me he had only found my dad injured.”
Anand said he only lodged a police report, last Friday, as he had been attending to his father.
He had also requested Plus Highway authorities to check its closed circuit television footage, but learnt that it was too late as the recordings only lasted three days.
Anand hopes that anyone with information would assist in police investigation.
The victim’s wife, M. Paravathy 55, said her husband worked hard to provide for the family. “All he talked about, recently, was how he couldn't wait to play with his grandson."
Shah Alam police chief ACP Zahedi Ayob, who confirmed the incident, said investigations were ongoing.
Malay Mail
17 Feb 2012
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