A Punggol resident could have lost his life when a four-storey tall tree fell on his Toyota Camry last Sunday (Feb 20).
Fifty-four-year old Gary Gong was driving home to Block 289C Punggol Place and was just about to park in his estate’s carport at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon when a tree came crashing down in the middle of a severe thunderstorm.
Two of the tree’s branches broke through the windshield and the window of the Camry, piercing into the vehicle.
Shaken, but thankful that he had not been hurt when the tree fell on him, Mr Gong discovered after a few minutes that the tree had completely surrounded his car, trapping him inside.
He then called the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) for help.
According to his account of the incident to The Straits Times, Mr Gong was extremely fortunate that the tree’s branches that shattered his car missed him entirely.
He told ST, “One branch pierced through the windscreen directly in front of me but became stuck near the gearbox next to my left leg. The other pierced through the window of the driver’s door, narrowly missing my right leg.”
Upon realising the severity of his near-miss, he said “my entire body went limp.”
SCDF forces arrived to assist him in leaving the car, but it took them around 10 minutes to extricate the Punggol resident from the vehicle.
The incident left his car with damages of over $10,000, he told ST, but more than that, he said he’s suffering from a residual fear of falling trees and wants to know what the Town Council can do to prevent such instances from happening again.
Falling trees, especially during severe weather incidents, have proven to be threat to people in several different incidents in the past few years.
A tree fell on the pavilion where 17 people had taken refuge from heavy rains, 14 of whom were injured in the incident.
The group was surprised when a tree fell directly over their heads, pinning some people under planks of wood. Some of the injured had cuts on their heads, and one person needed to be carried to another pavilion, where the group brought their hurt workmates.
In December 2020, opposition politician Dr Chee Soon Juan took to Facebook to call for better safety measures after a tree cracked and fell on several cars and motorcycles.
One car, he wrote, “was completely covered by the falling branches” when the tree cracked and fell, in an incident that occurred near his home.
On Feb 18, 2021, a 38-year-old woman died in Marsiling Park after a tree fell on her.
The police found the woman lying on the ground, motionless, under the tree. /TISG
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