Singapore — A six-year-old boy was pinned under a car at a zebra crossing at the exit of SAFRA Toa Payoh’s carpark. The State Coroner ruled his death as a tragic traffic incident.
On Apr 15 this year, the Japanese boy was riding his kick scooter over the zebra crossing when a car ran over him, pinning him under the vehicle.
The driver, Chua Kok Siong, drove to SAFRA Toa Payoh to deliver wedding cards that day. After completing the delivery, he and another passenger were heading out to lunch when the incident happened.
At around 2:30 pm, the boy, his mother and two siblings were going to the nearby playground.
The six-year-old and his older brother were on their kick scooters, riding ahead of their mother, who carried her youngest son.
According to State Coroner Adam Nakhoda’s findings issued on Tuesday (Nov 16), Chua turned on his windscreen wipers while going up the carpark exit road as it began to rain.
Meanwhile, the oldest boy approached the zebra crossing and stopped for traffic.
Chua stopped abruptly at the road hump before the zebra crossing to let the older boy pass, noted SC Nakhoda, as seen on the CCTV and in-car camera footage provided.
However, about a second after the older boy passed and Chua began driving forward, the younger brother sped on by without stopping while entering the pedestrian crossing.
Appearing to avoid a collision, the boy leaned to his left in an attempt to turn the scooter in that direction.
He then slipped and fell onto the road.
“I found that (the boy’s) forward momentum led to him being unable to stop and resulted in the collision with the motorcar,” noted the SC, as reported by Yahoo News.
As a result, the vehicle ran over the boy and his kick scooter, moving two car lengths from the original location before stopping.
In addition to Chua feeling and hearing the impact, he saw the boy’s mother running towards the car and gesturing to him, which caused him to stop the vehicle.
Chua alighted and used his vehicle jack lift to extricate the boy who was pinned underneath.
Another motorist stopped to help, using another vehicle jack lift.
Chua’s passenger called for an ambulance, and paramedics later extracted the boy from the car.
The child was conveyed to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and succumbed to injuries five days later.
The SC noted there was no foul play to his death.
“This was a tragic loss of a young life. It falls, inevitably, on parents to be additionally vigilant with young children that they may be accompanying on the road especially in situations such as in the present case,” the SC added.
It was reported that the boy’s parents decided to withdraw his care due to the futility of medical treatment.
They were informed of a high chance of irreversible brain injury or brain death after the incident.
The boy’s heart was donated. /TISG
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