The glass door in the toilet of a condominium in Serangoon shattered to pieces, leaving an elderly woman and her two-year-old granddaughter wounded.
The woman, 65-year-old Wang Fang (name transliterated from Chinese), was bathing the child when the incident happened. The mother of the child, 35-year-old Li Yue, told Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News that they had only been living in the unit at The Garden Residences in Serangoon.
As Mdm Fang turned her back to rinse, she heard an “explosion” sound. She turned around and saw the glass door shattered. Instinctively, Mdm Fang reached out to hug the child and protect her from the shards. The two began bleeding from the cuts over their bodies, with the toddler suffering from a two-centimetre wound on her forehead as she was facing the glass door.
It was reported that the family was concerned the child would be disfigured from the incident. Ms Li and her husband arrived home to hear shouts from the toilet. They rushed to see their daughter’s face covered in blood.
The couple brought them to Sengkang General Hospital for medical assistance. It took two hours for doctors to remove the shards from the child’s body. The incident has also traumatised the child who is now reluctant to shower or would suddenly cry out at night, said Ms Li.
Despite being told by the property developers that the glass door met the government’s specifications, the family said they would not take any responsibility for what happened. The developers offered them a S$2,000 gift certificate and a door replacement.
However, Ms Li said they only wanted an explanation why the door shattered. She added that the matter would have been much worse had her child been alone at the time. The developers said in an email that professional engineers were responsible for the materials and installation of the door.
They noted it was impossible to eliminate the risk of the glass exploding by itself due to how it was processed and manufactured.
There have been other incidents of glass fixtures suddenly breaking, such as earlier this year when a hotel glass shower door unhinged and fell on a guest. /TISG