A 70 year-old woman drowned after being trapped in her car that had rolled off the old ferry ramp at Satok and plunged into the Sg Sarawak late this morning.

Rescue services have identified the woman as Ng Yian Hong but it was unclear why or how the Kenari she was driving veered off the ramp.

The Fire and Rescue Service Department said they were called out after receiving a Malaysian Emergency Response Services call at 10.36am reporting that a car had gone off the ramp and sunk some 30m from the river bank with “a person inside”.

Eleven divers from the Batu Lintang station water rescue unit (PPDA) were deployed to conduct a search and rescue of the driver.

It took the divers some two-and-a-half hours to locate the car in the murky river and retrieve the woman’s body.

A video showing a silver-coloured car partially submerged in the water and a boat carrying two individuals approaching the vehicle to rescue the victim has gone viral on social media.

One of the men in the boat when met at the scene said he saw the vehicle floating while cleaning garbage in the river.

The man who introduced himself as Bonnie said he and his friend rushed to rescue the victim in the vehicle but failed as all four doors were locked from the inside.

“I only saw the victim giving a signal forbidding me to help, I also could not do anything because there was no tool to break the car window.

“We tried to tow the vehicle using a rope but the rope gave way and we could only watch the vehicle sink,” he told reporters when met at the scene.

The incident is the latest in a string of mishaps involving cars going off ferry ramps into the river.

In the most tragic of the accidents, nine in a family died on New Year’s Day after the four-wheel drive vehicle they were packed into rolled off a ferry ramp at Triso in the Betong division, and plunged into the crocodile infested Batang Lupar after failing to get onto a ferry.

Of the nine killed, three were teenagers and three small children, including a four-month-old. – February 24, 2021.