Ho Ching comments on road accident: It’s not the law, people must be responsible for each others’ safety

Singapore — A news report about a student getting hit by a car was shared by the Prime Minister’s wife and CEO of Temasek Holdings, Ms Ho Ching, even as videos of the accident went viral.

In response to a comment on her page that the traffic law must be reviewed and enhanced, Ms Ho wrote that the law cannot be responsible for anticipating all human behaviors and that people must, therefore, take responsibility to make the world safer for one another.

The report Ms Ho shared from The New Paper (TNP) said the 15-year-old, a student of Outram Secondary School, had the right of way as he crossed the street, since the green light was still flashing at that time.

However, the driver of a red Honda Jazz made a discretionary right turn and was involved in a collision with the boy, who was sent flying but managed to get up by himself. This occurred at the junction of Clemenceau Avenue and Havelock Road on Monday (Jan 6).

The boy was taken to the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital for treatment and the matter is now under investigation by the police.

According to the TNP article, the vice-principal of Outram Secondary School said the student had been discharged from the hospital and that he was back in school by Thursday (Jan 9).

A commenter on Ms Ho’s page named Timothy Lim wrote: “The existing traffic law (for discretionary right turns) should be reviewed and enhanced.”

Ms Ho, however, said: “Laws cannot cover every situation — not anticipate all sorts of human behaviours.

“They can cover perhaps 80% of the more common or more serious situations for common good. Then people need to also take responsibility and exercise common sense individually and as a community to mitigate marginal risks and create a safer, friendlier, kinder and more patient world.”

A video of the accident was uploaded on social media by roads.sg and watched by many people. Some netizens then began to call for the reversal of the discretionary right turn rule.

Others agreed with Ms Ho that the onus is on drivers to be more careful.

-/TISG

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