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Sumber : New Straits Times 06.12.2006

SHAH ALAM: A tapir was killed and two cars were badly damaged in an accident in Puncak Alam early yesterday.

The adult female tapir was crossing the road about 6am when it was hit by a Proton Wira driven by an army personnel.

The impact caused the animal to be flung to the opposite side of the road where it was hit by another car.

Sarjan Ibrahim Zainon, who was driving the Proton Wira, said he was with his younger brother, Lans Korporal Ishak Zainon when they saw the animal in the middle of the road.

"The tapir seemed to have had a change of mind and turned around, heading towards the jungle.

"I slowed down. But as I began to accelerate, the animal turned around again and started to cross the road.

"I could not stop on time. I crashed into the tapir. An on-coming vehicle also rammed into the animal," Ibrahim said.

The drivers and passengers of both cars escaped injury but the tapir was killed on the spot. Both vehicles, however, were badly damaged.

The tapir is the fifth to be killed by traffic along the Shah Alam- Puncak Alam highway since 2002. Another was knocked down along the Tanjung Malim-Rawang Highway.

At least a dozen others have been displaced by development in many parts of the state.

Selangor Wildlife Department deputy director Ahmad Azhar Mohamed believed the tapir may have been searching for its calf.

He also questioned why many of the signboards erected along the stretch two years ago were no longer in place.

The signboards were to warn motorists of possible animal crossings.

National programme director for the World Wide Fund for Nature Dr Dino Sharma said the authorities should do more to warn motorists about tapirs and consider putting up barriers near areas where they usually wandered out of the forest.

The road cuts through the Bukit Cerakah forest reserve, which is home to tapirs.

The animals are known to come out of the jungle at night.