From a traffic accident that claimed the lives of five in a family, to a drowning incident that swept away 10 in the blink of an eye, 2023 saw a number of tragedies that left the nation upset. Following is a recap of the stories that grabbed our headlines.
FATAL ROAD ACCIDENTS
In May, a student lost five family members in the blink of an eye.
Danish Basyir Nasaruddin's mother and four siblings were killed in an accident after dropping him off at his hostel at
Sekolah Izzudin Shah, Ipoh on May 1.
The fourth of eight siblings, Danish Basyir , 16, lost his mother Azriyani Abdul Latif, 45, and siblings Muhammad Azib, 23; Siti Nur Aminah, 8; Muhammad Fawwaz, 7; and Ahmad Uwais Qorni, 5, in a crash at Km310.1 of the North-South Expressway.
The five of them were on their way to his grandfather's house in Kampung Changkat Petai, Tapah from Taman Bunga Raya, Kuala Kangsar who had a medical appointment that morning.
"My mother was supposed to send atok to the Tapah Hospital for his check-up. I didn't expect that this would happen to my family," he was reported as saying. The car his mother was driving had crashed into a lorry laden with soil.
Also this year, a balik kampung trip for a soldier's family during the Chinese New Year holidays ended in tragedy when his 28-year-old wife and 6-month-old baby died in a car crash en route to Bachok, Kelantan from Subang.
The wife and baby suffered serious head and bodily injuries and died at the scene of the accident at Km35 Jalan Gua Musang-Kuala Krai.
The soldier and his 5-year-old son also sustained severe injuries in the incident.
POISONING
An 83-year-old woman in Kluang, Johor was killed after eating puffer fish in March.
Her husband was left fighting for his life at the Hospital
Enche' Besar Hajjah Khalsom intensive care unit. He later died
on April 8.
Lim Siew Guan, who died after eating puffer fish at Kampung Chamek, Paloh, was said to have no knowledge that it was poisonous.
The victim's daughter, Ng Ai Lee, 51, said her father, Eng Kuai Sin@Ng Chuan Sing, 84, had bought the fish from a peddler who sells from a van that comes to his old folks home, and he had been a regular customer.
"At the hospital, my father told my brother that he did not know the fish he bought was puffer fish and was poisonous.
"This is the first time my parents ate puffer fish. They would not have eaten it for fun because they are careful and health-conscious people."
A police report was lodged by the family after the post-mortem report confirmed the poisoning.
DROWNING
On April 17, 4-year-old V. Thanes Nair drowned in a swimming pool on his first day at a daycare centre in Bandar Baru Sri Klebang.
His mother had left him in the teacher's care before going to work and two hours later at 10.20am, he was found in the Centro Club swimming pool, behind the daycare centrel.
The boy died at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital on April 23, without regaining consciousness.
The case caused a public outcry when a video of Thanes' mother, D. Nilaveni, 40, and her husband seeking justice surfaced days later. The couple also protested by walking barefoot from the daycare centre to the Ipoh police headquarters.
Videos of them had gone viral and led to the arrest of the daycare centre's 55-year-old operator, who was subsequently charged in the Ipoh magistrate's court for negligence.
In June, 10 people, nine of them a family from Felda Lepar Hilir, Kuantan, Pahang, were swept away by a water surge at Jeram Mawar near Chukai, Terengganu.
It was reported that father Karim Abdullah, mother Azizah Eiyi and their seven children, as well as Muhammad Fikri Saliman, who was the fiance of their daughter Putri Balqis Izzati Abdul Rahman, had gone to the location for a picnic.
The next morning, seven victims were found. They were Karim, Azizah, Muhammad Zulqarnain Haikal Karim, 11,
Putri Nurerina Natasya, Muhammad Haziq Ziqree Karim, 6, Putri Aryana Umaira Karim, 4, and Putri Balqis Izzati, 18.
In November, two kindergarten boys drowned in a shrimp farm pool in Kota Kuala Muda, Kedah.
In the 2pm incident, the lifeless bodies of Muhammad Aidil Adha Mohd Ali, 5, and his cousin, 3-year-old Muhammad Syafiq Amsyar Abdul Syahid were found entangled in a net their father had cast during their rescue efforts.
Recounting the tragedy, Mohd Ali Abdul Rahman, 48, said at the time of the incident, he had been working in the shrimp farm when his wife informed him that their son, Aidil Adha, and nephew, Syafiq, were not around. A few minutes later, they looked inside the farm and lifted the net, only to see the boys unconscious.
CONSTRUCTION MISHAP
In November, three Bangla-deshi highway construction workers were about to break for lunch when they were caught up in sand and buried alive in a mishap at Kampung Maka in Labok, Kelantan.
According to their friends, the three victims, along with three others, were climbing up the slope when soil loosened, burying them.
The three others managed to climb to the top and save themselves, leaving the three behind. All died at the scene.
District police chief Superintendent Mohd Adli Mat Daud said all three victims were in their 30s and that their bodies were sent to the Machang Hospital Forensics Unit for post-mortem.
CHILD LEFT UNATTENDED
In October, an 8-month-old baby died after she was reportedly left in a parked car at the Canselor Tunku Muhriz Hospital in Bandar Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur.
The child's mother, a doctor at the hospital, only realised that she had forgotten her toddler as she was about to finish work at 6pm.
Cheras police chief Zam Halim Jamaluddin said the baby was allegedly put in the child seat at about 7.20am and was supposed to be dropped off at the nursery before her mother headed to work. But after placing the baby in the rear seat, the woman drove straight to work.
Zam said the woman only realised that the baby had been left in her car after her husband went to the nursery to pick up the child and found she wasn't there.
The child, the younger of two siblings, was pronounced dead at 5.53pm by a medical officer at the hospital.
Police investigations were launched under the Child Act 2001.
AIRCRAFT DISASTER IN ELMINA
In August, a Beechcraft 390 aircraft crashed near Bandar Elmina in Shah Alam, Selangor, killing 10 people, including Pahang Local Government, Housing, Environment and Green Technology Committee chairman Datuk Seri Johari Harun, 53.
The crash claimed the lives of six passengers and two of the aircraft's crew, as well a Grab car driver and food delivery rider who were travelling on the Guthrie Highway at the time.
The ill-fated plane was on its way from Langkawi International Airport to the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang and had been cleared to land at 2.48pm.
It was believed to have crashed two minutes before that.
