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Taxi driver hit by car said he couldn't have avoided it

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Taxi driver who was hit by man who drove against traffic says...

Taxi driver Jin Lian Cheng was driving on the fast lane of the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) early yesterday morning when he had the shock of his life.

He saw the bright lights of another car as it sped straight at him. He did not have any time to react and crashed into it.

"There was no way I could have avoided it," Mr Jin, 54, told Lianhe Wanbao from his hospital bed.

"I don't know why the red car suddenly came from the opposite direction."

The accident at about 6am near the South Buona Vista exit of AYE going towards Changi Airport caused an eight-vehicle pile-up involving a motorcycle, lorry, two cars and four taxis.

There was a two-hour traffic jam afterwards.

Mr Jin had just picked up his first passenger at 5.30am and was taking the AYE for his regular drop-off at the airport when the accident happened in light traffic.

The cabby, his passenger, who is in his 30s, and the driver of the car, 63, were among the people taken to the National University Hospital (NUH) for treatment.

Mr Jin said he turned around after the accident and saw that his passenger's head was bleeding. The cabby narrowly missed being blinded in the left eye after shards of glass from the windscreen hit his face.

EIGHT STITCHES

He received eight stitches at the corner of his eye, from a cut 2cm away from his eyeball.

He also tore his left knee ligament and got his right lung punctured.

He is still undergoing scans for his lungs to further diagnose the problem.

The driver of the red Honda Airwave was sent for surgery at the hospital after suffering undisclosed injuries. His family told Lianhe Wanbao that he should have been driving to Jurong to start work and they had no idea why he was driving against traffic.

Shin Min Daily News reported that three foreign workers also suffered minor injuries.

One of the workers told the newspaper that the Honda crashed into the taxi, spun and hit the lorry they were on.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it received a call at 6.13am and three people were later sent to NUH.

One fire engine and four ambulances were sent to the scene.

The police said a 63-year-old man was arrested and investigations are ongoing.

Two drivers had near misses earlier

Mystery still surrounds how and where the red Honda entered the expressway.

 

But videos uploaded on the Internet from two in-car cameras suggest that he was already driving against traffic on the fast lane somewhere in the CTE before the Merchant Road exit.

Once the driver was speeding against traffic, it was a bad accident waiting to happen.

In the video taken in the CTE tunnel, the car is seen speeding on the fast lane against traffic.

The driver of the car with the dash cam is in the middle lane and slows down as the red car approaches, and then passes him on the right.

Both his front and back cameras capture the speeding red Honda Airwave.

In the AYE clip, the driver in the fast lane was alert enough to avoid the oncoming car.

Mr Sreekumar R, who uploaded the video on YouTube, wrote: "Near to Alexandra a car came in opposite traffic in high speed and I was lucky enough to change lane fast.

"Shocking moment."

The video shows the bright headlights of the approaching car as it comes round a bend.

Mr Sreekumar swerves to the left with a few seconds to spare.

- Seow Yun Rong


Near to Alexandra a car came in opposite traffic in high speed and I was lucky enough to change lane fast. Shocking moment.

- Mr Sreekumar R, whose in-car camera recorded the red Honda driving against the traffic on AYE

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