By Amanda Yong

HE was fighting for his life as he lay on the road shoulder of the North-South Highway in Malaysia.

Blood streamed down his face as he struggled desperately to breathe.

Later, tears flowed quietly down the faces of his heartbroken friends.

Two of them stayed by his side while another tried to redirect oncoming traffic using a small torchlight in the pre-dawn darkness.

And, on the sidelines, more than 10 onlookers stood watching.

But not a single one of them lifted a finger to help.

They stood passively, observing the scene as if waiting for another accident to happen.

Some even whipped out their handphones to take photographs of the dying man and the vehicles involved in the accident.

Mr Dominic Chan, a Singaporean, died of his injuries before the ambulance arrived, Mr Azari Amin said.

Mr Azari, who is in his early 30s and works as a printer, was by his friend's side in his final moments.

Mr Chan, 44, had crashed his superbike into an overturned lorry that was occupying the middle and extreme right lanes of the North-South Highway at the 224km mark near the Simpang Empat toll plaza, close to the Malacca-Negri Sembilan border.

His three friends, who were behind him on two bikes, found his body under the wrecked lorry, which was carrying car batteries, and carried him out.

They were just in time as the two vehicles burst into flames soon after.

'Sick entertainment'

None of the onlookers went to the aid of the lorry driver and passenger either, Mr Azari said.

'The passenger was limping and screaming for somebody to help the driver, who was trapped, to get out of the lorry,' he said.

'I was in a difficult position. My friend was down and the fellow (lorry driver) was trapped.

'I was thinking to myself, 'What should I do?' But the passenger managed to smash the windscreen and get the driver out,' he said.

The driver had a fractured right arm, Mr Azari added, saying he could see bones sticking out of the arm.

'It was as if they were watching some sick entertainment,' he said of the group of onlookers who had stopped their cars to gawk at the accident scene.

He said that about five cars were parked on both sides of the expressway, in the direction of Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru.

'The people there were so bad. Nobody came to help us,' said Mr Azari said.

He added: 'When my friend asked one of them whether anyone had called for an ambulance, the guy even had the cheek to say, 'Oh, we don't know the number.'

The friend, Clarence, a 28-year-old Malaysian who works in Singapore, alerted the local police, ambulance and fire brigade.

By the time the ambulance turned up, Mr Chan was dead.

Mr Azari believed his friend died of head injuries about 15 minutes after they carried him out.

'We didn't remove his helmet as we saw a lot of blood gushing out from his head. His ribs were also smashed,' he said.

The group of four biker friends - three Singaporeans and one Malaysian - had been on the road for about eight hours and travelled about 600km when the accident happened at about 3.15am.

They were all riding superbikes. Mr Chan's was a 1,000cc Yamaha Fazer.

They had set off from Hat Yai, Thailand, at about 7pm Singapore time on 1 Dec.

They had met through bike forums and mutual biker friends and acquaintances.

When they started on their trip on 27 Nov, they were eager to ride all the way to Kanchanaburi in Thailand where they had hoped to visit the Death Railway and other historic sights.

But they never made it there.

Relentless rain forced them to stop at Hat Yai where they spent a few days.

As the floods rose in the southern Thai city, they decided to return to Singapore about 12 hours earlier than originally planned.

It rained throughout their journey back, only petering out as they neared Malacca.

Tired

Tired by the long journey and their visibility affected by the rain, things took a fatal turn when they neared the 224km mark.

ILL-FATED TRIP: (From left) Mr Chan and friends Clarence, Azari and Sazali during the ill-fated biking trip. They were all riding superbikes.

'Before that, it was still quite bright along the highway. But then it grew completely pitch dark about 20km before the 224km mark,' Mr Azari said.

It was so dark that he believes Mr Chan did not see the overturned lorry until it was too late.

Two friends riding on a bike that had brighter headlights were in front, followed by Mr Chan. Mr Azari was the rider at the rear.

They had slowed down to 90kmh, below the legal speed limit of 110kmh, as they were tired.

'Maybe Dom (Mr Chan) felt sleepy when we slowed down. He overtook my friends and sped ahead,' Mr Azari said.

The friends lost sight of Mr Chan for about 10 minutes. They thought that he was keeping a safe distance from them.

When they decided to catch up with him, they saw a cloud of smoke ahead and an overturned lorry, which had apparently crashed after a tyre burst.

As they got closer, they saw a bike lying on the road.

'I had a bad feeling it might be Dom's bike and I was hoping it wasn't him,' Mr Azari said.

But his worst fear was confirmed when they spotted their friend lying under the overturned lorry.

And when the three men saw the condition their friend was in, they broke down.

But even as they silently wept and grieved, they had to focus on helping their dying friend.

He was still conscious when they found him. But he was struggling hard to breathe.

'We just kept telling him to hang on until help arrived,' Mr Azari said.

But help came too late.

'He was gone just like that,' Mr Azari said.

Mr Chan was sent to a hospital in Tampin, Negri Sembilan. Mr Azari and his friends waited at the hospital until Mr Chan's family members arrived.

Mr Azari says he does not know how Mr Chan's mother, who is in her late 80s, is doing as he did not get to see her.

'Dom was her favourite child. He was a very filial son who always put his mum before everything else.

'We were supposed to go on the trip (to Thailand) one week earlier, but he asked us to postpone it because he wanted to take his mum to Cameron Highlands for her birthday,' he said.

Mr Chan was a bachelor.

Mr Azari said Mr Chan, a manager in a cruise company, was the oldest in their group.

'We looked up to him. He was like a big brother to us,' he said.

He was easy to get along with and fun to be around, he added.

'Zombie' state

Going back to the accident, Mr Azari recalled that the three men, who had not slept for 36 hours by that time, later 'rode back (to Singapore) in a zombie state'.

'We just wanted to get out of the place - no matter how tired we were.'

But this tragedy has not put them off from riding up north, Mr Azari said.

'People ask if we're going to give up, but I tell them, 'No, it's in our blood.' It's a risk we choose to take.'

And they may go on another trip next June, perhaps as 'a tribute to Dom'.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Dec 17, 2008.