An elderly technician Tan Ying Xiong suffered injuries last Tuesday after a HDB carpark gantry barrier at Block 659B Jurong West St 64 fell on his head, around 7.30 in the morning. The shocking incident caused the 65-year-old to become pinned underneath his motorcycle, where he remained trapped for at least ten minutes.

Tan, who has lived in Jurong for the past 18 years, recounted to the Chinese daily that he rode his motorcycle towards the gantry and waited for the car in front of him to move off, before he rode forward. His motorcycle’s IU was scanned and the gantry barrier went up as per normal, and Tan moved forward to exit the open air carpark.

Suddenly, the barrier came crashing down on him. Tan shared, “I had no time to react when I felt a metal rod fall on my head.”

The impact not only threw Tan off balance, causing him to fall to the right, it also caused his motorcycle to fall on him and pin him to the ground. With no other pedestrian or commuter in sight, the trapped Tan slowly managed to get his hands on his cell phone and contacted his wife.

Fortunately, another motorcyclist and a pedestrian chanced upon Tan after he had been trapped for ten minutes and they helped to free him. The kind strangers helped Tan to the kerb and helped him to call an ambulance.

Tan, who suffered abrasions to his right shoulder and leg, was conveyed to the hospital. He was discharged that same day.

Housing Development Board (HDB) has debunked a taxi driver’s claims that he was issued a summon for stopping his car on a service road for “less than 2 min” while he was only helping a wheelchair-bound passenger get to the elevator.

Facebook user Max Tan, the taxi driver, wrote on Facebook recently, “Alighting a old wheelchair old lady. Engine on. Helping to push her up the slope to lift lobby…time taken less than 2 min.” He continued, “Got this summon. I approached this idiot and ask why?? Can’t u see I helping this wheel chair lady??? He said Law stated No parking at all times even with engine on…..I say thank you..”

Tan ended his post by striking a sarcastic tone. He wrote, “From now on…this summon will remind me what Singapore is becoming…I eeish one day his mother is my customer with wheel chair…Do Blame me for throwing her on the road side…”

In his post, Tan included a map showing where the parking offence occurred. He also shared a shot of the summon which shows that the incident occurred on 24 May at 12.25pm, near 196a Punggol Field rOAD. Tan was fined $100 for flouting Rule 3 (a) of the Housing & Development (Common Property and Open Spaces) Rules.

Standing by the traffic summon, HDB has revealed that Tan alighted his passenger at the service road, in front of the central rubbish chute, while the two nearby loading bays were empty and available for him to have stopped his car to help a customer. The board added that these bays have ramps that could have better facilitated movement for the alleged wheelchair-bound passenger.

Besides this, HDB debunked Tan’s claims that he left his engine on and that he was gone for “less than 2 min”. The authority revealed that Tan had parked his vehicle at the service road for 10 minutes with the engine turned off and noted that the service road is meant to be kept clear at all times for the use of emergency vehicles.

Tan has since removed his post from Facebook.

A 69-year-old pedestrian was conveyed to Singapore General Hospital after she was knocked down by a car at the junction of Lim Teck Kim Road and Tanjong Pagar Road, last Thursday (24 May). A six-year-old boy tragically lost his life in a collision involving a public bus at Choa Chu Kang, that same day.

An eyewitness known as Adrian recounted that the incident involving the elderly pedestrian occurred around 5pm that day and claims that a black car struck the woman after the driver made a right turn “without looking”.

A photo shared by Adrian shows the victim lying in the middle of the road as a man stands beside her and appears to be speaking on a mobile phone. The police have confirmed that investigations are ongoing.

https://theindependent.sg.sg/tragedy-involving-6-year-old-boy-draws-xenophobic-comments-online/

An older woman has been caught on camera lashing out at a girl on board a public bus in Singapore. It remains unclear when the incident occurred.

In the video, the older aunty – dressed in white – can be heard screaming at the girl who takes a seat beside her. The aunty can be heard shouting, “What happened to me? Just now your bag knock at me, you know? You understand a not?!” As the flabbergasted girl remains silent, the aunty violently grabs and pulls the girl’s backpack while continuing to scream, “You understand a not? Say sorry first. Don’t be so rude, okay?”

The aunty then shoves the girl – who can be seen struggling to move from the seat – against the bus window before taking her seat again. As the girl tries once more to move from the seat, the aunty refuses to give way and instead, stands up and pushes the girl so forcefully that the girl falls backwards.

The aunty finally lets the girl out of the seat after this but pushes the girl from the back as she moves out, causing the poor commuter to stumble. The harassed victim fortunately regains her footing and alights at the next bus stop.

All this while, the other commuters on the bus can be seen taking videos of the incident with their mobile phones. It does not appear as though any of the other commuters went to the girl’s aid or confronted the bully based on the clip that has been trending on social media.

The video circulating online was posted on Facebook group, Singapore Incident, but appears to have been removed or made private. The video has also been circulating widely on messaging application, WhatsApp. A copy of the video can be seen here.

Netizens have flamed the older woman for her shocking behaviour while extending their support to the girl:

The Ministry of Transport (MOT) has responded to a viral Facebook post about the unconventional placement of a bus stop along Bukit Timah Road.

The original Facebook post by user Mei Shan was reacted to more than 500 times, with about 3000 shares.

https://theindependent.sg.sg/netizens-confused-about-barriers-in-front-of-a-bus-stop-along-bukit-timah/

In her post, Mei Shan said, “sometimes i really very confuse[d] with the construction in SG.. what is that barrier for if the bus stop is build there.. maybe someone can enlighten me..”.

She was referring to a bus stop with railings built in front of it, and was confused about its functionality.

On Saturday, the Ministry of Transport shared their own Facebook post with the following caption: “Wonder what happens when there’s insufficient space for a typical bus stop?

The answer? We innovate!

In their post, they also added, “Bus stop 40021 along Bukit Timah Road was one such challenge. Our engineers found an unconventional way to site this bus stop along the busy Bukit Timah Road, while minimising impact to vehicular and human traffic. They even factored in a shelter to ensure bus passengers will not be too affected by the rain and shine!”

Earlier today, the Ministry’s post was picked up by Facebook group ROADS.sg, who added their take:

“MOT(Ministry of Transport) makes the tall claim that the weird design of the Bukit Timah bus stop was the result of innovation.

The strange boasting aside, why didn’t they just put a sign at the bus stop informing commuters that the boarding and alighting area was further up due to space constraints?

“Sometimes, I miss the bus because it stops so far away,” Matthew Ng, 10, an Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) pupil, said he has been taking the bus home from school for the past two years.

Ms Siew Bay Choo, 48, a cashier who works at a nearby petrol station, said commuters might get wet walking to the bus if it rains. “It can be rather inconvenient, if one takes public transport to work daily.”

MOT should have made a shelter all the way to the alighting and boarding area.

MOT respond: https://bit.ly/2sbzI1U”

Netizens dismiss the statement by the Ministry of Transport, and insist that a spade should be called a spade.

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Swiss Cottage Secondary School has reportedly disciplined the teacher who mocked his students’ work on social media. The teacher, Mr Tan, posted photos of his students’ work on Instagram stories with derogatory captions as such:

Mr Tan reportedly became employed at the Ministry of Education in 2016.

Noting that teachers should not conduct themselves in the manner that Mr Tan did, Swiss Cottage revealed that Mr Tan has been counselled and that appropriate disciplinary action has been taken against him.

Mr Tan, who had over 2000 followers – some of whom are believed to be his students – has since shut down his Instagram account.