[UNHURT: British passengers, who are not hurt, arriving at the Malayan Railway Station at Tanjong Pagar.]

By Lediati Tan

SHE looked up from her seat and saw a gaping hole where the connecting coach should have been.

Singaporean Nor Salinah Mohd Ali was one of the fortunate ones - her coach did not derail.

But the real impact of how lucky she was to have survived without a scratch came only when she got off her seat to survey the rest of the train.

She realised, to her horror, that the train had split into two - right between her coach and the next one.

The Singapore-bound train had derailed near Batu Anam Station in Segamat, Johor. The train had nine coaches in all. The last six coaches derailed and two of those toppled over onto their sides.

Ms Nor Salinah, 27, a nurse, was in the third coach.

This was her second visit to the Malaysian town of Tampin by train and she was travelling with her husband and six-year-old son.

She told The New Paper that the family boarded the train at Tampin at 10.30am yesterday.

Just over an hour after bidding farewell to their grandmother, Ms Nor Salinah noticed that the train was shaking unusually, and the shaking continued for about five minutes.

Then, the shaking grew stronger and the train started to wobble from side to side, she said.

Her husband, Mr Muhammed Naim, 27, a traffic warden, was jolted from his sleep.

Instinctively, Ms Nor Salinah said she held on to her son. She also tried to hold on to the sides of the train to keep her balance.

She said: 'It (the train) was shaking, then I heard a snap, and the power (on the train) was cut off.

'I was shocked for a while.'

That was when she saw the gaping hole.

She said their coach continued to move for a short distance before it stopped.

After she got her family off the train, she went to help those trapped in the other coaches.

'As I was helping them, I was so relieved I wanted to cry too. I'm grateful that we're still alive,' said Ms Nor Salinah.

A group of Indian students on a youth exchange programme with Rotary International were not so lucky. Their coach was one of those that fell on its side.

The group of eight, including their team leader, MrSudhindra Mohan Sharma, 43, and four boys and three girls from the ages of 16 to 19, were travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore after their programme ended.

Upbeat

They decided to spend two days in Singapore before flying back to Mumbai on Thursday.

Mr Sudhindra said the accident happened so quickly that he did not even have time to react.

The group later sought treatment from Raffles Hospital in Singapore.

A girl in the group suffered a fracture in her left arm, while the rest in the group had minor injuries such as cuts and bruises.

Still, Mr Sudhindra remained upbeat.

He said: 'You can't help it. It could have happened to anybody any time. We're lucky to be alive.'

This article was first published in The New Paper.