On 28 March, a 72-year-old driver passed away after crashing his van into a covered walkway. 

It was his first day on the job.

He was unconscious when rescued from the car by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and died in the hospital later.

The Accident

The accident happened around 3.20 pm on 27 March, near Redhill MRT station.

According to passer-by Teng Hau Hin, the van had been speeding as it attempted to turn the corner of Jalan Tiong to Tiong Bahru Road, but crashed into a covered walkway instead. 

Mr Teng, a 53-year-old security guard, had just been a few steps away from the crash, and managed to get out of the way in time and avoid the car.

According to him, when the van passed right in front, the driver had his eyes tightly shut, leading him to suspect that he had already been unconscious before the crash.

After watching the driver crash into the fencing in front of the walkway, he expressed that he felt incredibly shocked and afraid, and the scene kept replaying in his mind.

“If I hadn’t jumped away in time, I’m afraid something bad would’ve happened,” he said.

He saw smoke rising from the van after the crash, until another passer-by shut down the van’s engine.

The driver was slumped over the steering wheel.

Aftermath

Upon seeing that the driver was unconscious, Mr Teng called emergency services for help.

The front of the van was severely damaged, with its windscreen shattered. Its left tail light was damaged as well.

The SCDF arrived within five minutes and used hydraulic rescue equipment to extricate the driver from the car. After performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him for 20 minutes, he was sent to Singapore General Hospital but passed away there.

Later, a tow truck was sent to tow the vehicle away, as captured by this clip on TikTok:

The Singapore Police Force verified the incident, saying authorities were notified at around 3.20 pm that day. According to preliminary investigations, the vehicle was suspected of having skidded and crashed into the walkway, causing the accident.

Further investigations are ongoing.

The van driver’s employer was the owner of a small school bus company, who said that it had been the driver’s first day on the job. He declined to comment further.

The deceased had been hired to replace another driver surnamed Luo, who resigned recently.

According to Mr Luo, he had been driving the school bus involved in the incident for around 8 months, and resigned due to health issues on 24 March, a Friday. The van was driven again only on Monday by the deceased, and Mr Luo expressed disbelief that an accident happened on the first day of the job.

The vehicle was a 13-seater school bus that ferried students from an international school. Mr Luo said that the students would typically be dismissed at 4 pm, so it was likely that the deceased had been driving to the school when the crash happened.