June 3, 2025
IPOH – The man whose lorry crashed into a baby elephant last month has spoken out about his anguish over the tragedy that broke the heart of a nation.
“It weighs heavily on me. Each time I pass by the road, my heart aches,” said the lorry driver, who only wants to be known as Azhar.
He was behind the wheel in the early hours of May 11 when the crash happened along the Gerik-Jeli road.
The male calf ended up pinned underneath the lorry. Its mother then charged at the lorry to try and free the calf. Eventually, it stood vigil next to the lorry for almost five hours.
“When I think about the baby elephant, I feel really sad. I will not forget the moment,” Azhar recounted the ill-fated day to The Star.
Azhar, who is from Kedah, said his job requires him to collect chickens from Penang daily.
He would use the Baling road that connects to Gerik before continuing his journey to the slaughterhouse in Kota Baru.
His day starts at 4.30pm when he goes to Penang to collect the chickens from farms.
By 8pm, his long drive begins after the chickens are loaded onto the lorry.
On that tragic night, Azhar was with a co-driver as usual.
“My colleague drove from Penang right up to the Titiwangsa rest stop in Gerik before I took over the wheel.
“It was around 2.30am, and when passing the dark and foggy downhill road with a bend, I spotted an adult elephant at a distance. It was by the side of the road eating grass.
“I immediately switched the high-beam headlights to a lower mode. This is what most lorry drivers do so that we do not agitate the elephants.
“The adult elephant seemed calm as far as I could see. I continued driving, but suddenly the baby elephant emerged from the forest before I could hit the brakes,” said the father of six.
Azhar reported that his heart was pounding hard.
When the lorry came to a halt, he realised that the baby elephant was beneath the vehicle.
Moments later, he said the adult elephant came close to the lorry, shaking it vigorously in an attempt to free the calf.
“The co-driver and I panicked. I quickly dialled 999 before the call was transferred to Perhilitan,” he said.
Perhilitan officers advised them to stay calm and not to come out of the lorry until they arrived.
“We were so helpless. We could not do anything to save the baby elephant,” said Azhar.
When the officers arrived at about 3.45am, the adult elephant was sedated.
“We only got out of the lorry at around 4.30am,” he said, adding that he called for back-up and loaded the chickens onto another lorry and continued the drive to Kota Baru.
Azhar, who has been driving heavy vehicles for two decades, said he used to drive a trailer before switching to a poultry lorry two years ago.
He has been using the forest-lined route almost daily in the past seven years and has seen elephants many times by the roadside or even in the middle of the road.
“I have been on this road for years. I have heard about wildlife dying due to accidents, but I had never, ever wanted to be the cause of it.
“I always slowed down. I never thought something like this would happen. I had no intention of harming any wildlife, but I was caught completely off guard when the baby elephant suddenly emerged from the forest,” he said.
(Supt Zulkifli Mahmood, who was Gerik police chief at the time, has said that no negligence was found in the case.)
Azhar said he was well aware of the negative comments on social media about him.
“People accuse lorry drivers of being reckless and heartless. I understand their anger, but I feel hurt. I am very down,” he said.
Since the tragedy, he has had to pass the route almost daily due to the nature of his job.
“I still see the tyre marks and some of the wreckage by the side of the road. I am shaken still,” he said.