I’ve always had this inherent fear when I’m travelling behind a lorry transporting metal pipes.
For some reason, that scene in Final Destination 2 just stuck with me for a very long time, not because of how gory it is, but because of how possible it may be if certain safety precautions were not taken into consideration.
I’m sure you would know what I’m talking about, right?
Well, if you don’t, I’m talking about the scene where an explosion causes metal pipes on the back of a lorry to fly out and impale one of the characters.
Yikes.
And today, my fears have been confirmed to be very real.
Unknown Object Flies Towards Rider
40-year-old Ms Ismawati Ali was travelling along the Pan-Island Expressway on Thursday evening towards Bukit Batok to meet her Carousell seller.
She was going at 75kmh on the right-most lane and was about a car length’s behind an open-top container (OTC) lorry that was carrying metal recyclables travelling on the centre lane.
At one point in time, she spotted an unknown object flying from the lorry towards her motorcycle and she thought it was a piece of string.
Nothing harmless, right? Wrong.
She realised just in time that it was not a piece of string and was instead an iron pipe or rod. It was flying directly towards her head.
She managed to dodge just in time whilst still keeping a good control over her 800cc Kawasaki Z800 motorcycle.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to dodge fully, as the iron pipe pierced her left shoulder, causing her to jerk backwards and her bike to wobble.
She gripped the handlebars of her bike tightly so that her bike wouldn’t go out of control, and it worked.
All she thought about was the fact that she “could have landed on the road and would most likely be run over by the car behind” her. She kept praying that she wouldn’t die because she still had to take care of her 12-year-old daughter.
When she finally regained her composure and looked up to see the lorry’s plate number, it had vanished from view.
Continued On Despite The Pain
She then continued on her journey towards Bukit Batok despite the pain that she was feeling because of the heavy traffic that rendered her unable to pull over by the side.
When she reached her destination, she noticed a small tear on her dark purple blouse and the sleeve was drenched in blood. She quickly returned home which was just a five-minute ride away.
Warning: Viewer discretion is advised. The following images may be disturbing to some.
It was only when she arrived at the foot of her block that she felt dizzy and took a cab to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in Jurong East.
Her cut was deep and took about 12 stitches to close up. The doctors also made sure an X-Ray of her shoulder was done to check for other injuries.
She was kept for observation and only got discharged at around 3am the next day, and she was given a week of medical leave to rest and recover.
After she returned home the next day, she made a police report and investigations are currently ongoing.
According to Ms Ismawati’s Facebook post that she shared on Saturday about her experience, she mentioned that the metal pipes were not secured to the vehicle. She condemned the lorry driver for posing a threat to those on the road, and also criticised its use of the centre lane when it was supposed to be using the leftmost lane.
Hopefully, the driver will be caught so that justice can be served. This should also serve as a reminder for those who are transporting such equipment to always have a netting to secure their load so as to prevent such incidents from happening again.
We wish Ms Ismawati a speedy recovery!
