Three heavy vehicle accidents in one morning cause huge jams
Pest control technician who drove past two of them was caught in massive 1km jam; slip road in Changi closed for eight hours
Updated: May 25, 2015
There were three accidents involving heavy vehicles in the Changi area yesterday (May 20).
One man experienced the jams caused by two of the accidents as he passed them on the way to work.
At about 9am, Mr Mohamed Irwan Masop, 35, a pest control technician, saw a trailer truck lying on its side on a slip road from the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) to the East Coast Parkway (ECP), near Changi Airport.
"I saw everyone slow down, and thought there was an accident in the lane I was in," he told The New Paper.
"But then I saw a trailer truck lying on its side on the opposite lane. It looked bad."
The 16-wheel concrete pump trailer truck was being towed when it tipped over on the slip road from Airport Boulevard to the PIE.
The trailer truck had ploughed through some barricades bordering the construction site for Changi Airport Terminal 4 before coming to a stop at a tree.
The slip road had to be closed for about eight hours from 8.30am, causing a massive 1km jam yesterday.
A Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) spokesman said they received a call asking for assistance at 7.35am.
Two people, including the driver of the trailer truck, were taken to Changi General Hospital (CGH).
INJURIES
The passenger, in his 20s, was able to get out of the truck by himself and was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
The driver, in his 30s, was rescued at about 10.20am after a two-hour operation by the SCDF.
Spreader and cutter tools were used to free him, as his legs and shoulders were trapped by the caved-in cabin.
He was taken conscious to the hospital with head and spinal injuries.
Just as he thought he could still make it on time to work, Mr Irwan was caught in another jam on Tanah Merah Coast Road.
"Ten minutes after I got out of the jam, I got caught in another one. Vehicles started filtering to the right, and then I saw the accident involving two lorries.
"The lorry that was behind had its windscreen smashed," he said.
There were no reported injuries in this accident.
By the time Mr Irwan got to work, he was almost an hour late.
But he could have been much later, if he had been caught in the jam caused by a third accident at Nicoll Drive, involving a lorry, a trailer truck and a motorcycle.
The SCDF spokesman said they received another call at about 11.50am requesting for assistance.
A male motorcyclist's left leg had become trapped under a lorry which had toppled on its side.
SCDF personnel managed to pull him out from under the lorry by lifting it with an air bag.
The 25-year-old man was later taken conscious to CGH with leg injuries.
The accidents come a day after a pile-up on the Seletar Expressway involving a bus, lorry and tipper truck.
TNP also reported yesterday that Mr Lim Chin Huat, 44, a wheelchair-bound man who was knocked down by a trailer truck at Sungei Kadut Street 6 last month, died on Monday.
Mr Irwan urged drivers to be careful on the roads.
"It's not worth getting into an accident just because you want to get somewhere faster," he said.
"As drivers, be careful. Safety is in our hands."
It's not worth getting into an accident just because you want to get somewhere faster.
- Mr Mohamed Irwan Masop, who witnessed two accidents involving heavy vehicles yesterday
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