Singapore — The police have revealed that the SMRT taxi driver who had killed a 66-year-old pedestrian in a traffic accident had lost consciousness at the wheel before he rammed into the woman, who was among a group of passengers crossing the road. The taxi driver is a senior citizen himself, aged 72.
A video of the incident, posted on Facebook page SG Road Vigilante on Friday night, is going viral on social media. In the video, the taxi driver can be seen beating the red light and suddenly turning right, breaching the right of way for vehicles going straight.
The taxi driver then changes lanes and makes a turn, ploughing into a group of pedestrians preparing to cross the road.
The crash, which had occurred at the junction of Jalan Bukit Merah and Alexandra Road, had sent two women flying.
An eyewitness, named Wang, told a Chinese daily that about six pedestrians had been about to cross the road when the taxi rammed into two of the pedestrians. One woman was left lying on the road while the other landed on a grass patch.
The woman who landed on the grass patch had been with her son when the accident occurred. She momentarily lost consciousness after having been hit by the taxi but came to shortly thereafter and rushed to comfort her crying son.
The other woman, who was lying on the road, was reportedly unconscious and bleeding from her mouth, and nose. The police later reported that both women, aged 32 and 66, were conveyed to the National University Hospital where the older woman succumbed to her injuries.
Preliminary investigations conducted by the police show that the taxi driver lost consciousness prior to the accident. The elderly driver is assisting the police in their investigations.
This is, unfortunately, not the first traffic accident involving a taxi driver who had lost consciousness at the wheel. Earlier this month, ComfortDelGro reported that one of its taxi drivers had “blacked out momentarily” while ferrying a passenger on the East Coast Parkway.
The taxi driver had then collided with a centre divider in the middle of the expressway. When he came to, he realised that the passenger had already alighted the vehicle.