Police arrest biker who filmed himself speeding on BKE
Police share video clip of 32-year-old's dangerous riding online
It was a high-speed, high-risk 10km ride that landed him in trouble with the law.
Police have arrested a 32-year-old biker who filmed himself speeding past and weaving in between other vehicles on the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE).
The Singapore Police Force (SPF)shared the video on their Facebook page on Wednesday, together with the announcement of his arrest.
The clip, lasting 5 minutes and 46 seconds, was originally posted on YouTube by user Phantom Phantom on Oct 4.
By yesterday afternoon, the clip had drawn over 29,000 views.
It shows the BMW F800R heading from the junction outside Raffles Town Club to the PIE and then the BKE towards Woodlands.
Along the way, the biker cuts across lanes to overtake lorries, tackles turns seemingly without slowing down and narrowly squeezes between moving cars.
At one point (at the 3min 50sec mark) he even aggressively revs his engine to intimidate another motorcyclist before raising his hand to scold him for being slow.
The BMW rider then shouts in Malay: "You want to check your handphone for what?"
He has not been identified and it was not known when the video was filmed.
The SPF Facebook post read: "Wouldn't it be nice if people shared good road behaviour videos?
"TP (Traffic police) has arrested a man who is believed to be the biker in the video and he is assisting in investigations.
#ROADSENSE
"Just looking at the video tells us that his actions can affect so many other road users. Let's use more #RoadSense when we're on the roads."
Mr Zaihan Mohamed Yusof aka The New Paper's Biker Boy was shocked by the video, including how the biker rarely used signal lights and rode close to other motorists in a bid to intimidate them.
Obeying traffic rules, Mr Zaihan completed the same 10km route in about nine minutes, compared to the biker's timing of about 5½ minutes. (See commentary on right.)
Automobile Association of Singapore president Bernard Tay said that a speeding rider provides less time for other motorists to react to potential danger.
"The injury a person can sustain in a vehicle collision at 120kmh is similar to that of a person falling from the 12th storey," he warned.
"The rider will suffer multiple injuries and possibly death."
Besides endangering himself, the rider also puts other motorists and pedestrians at risk as "they have no protection against a block of speeding metal".
Singapore Kindness Movement general secretary William Wan felt the best reaction would be to ignore hostile road users.
He said: "When you're on the road, there's no point having an altercation. Frankly, (such situations) have happened to many of us. Since these people are full of rage, you don't want to risk your life and limb confronting them."
It is not known why the rider decided to upload a video of himself putting other road users in danger, but many netizens praised the police for taking action.
Others were alarmed at the danger posed by the biker, both to himself and to fellow road users.
Facebook user Ken Brandon Pereira commented: "TP is doing a good job arresting him (as) they are actually saving his life."
A police spokesman confirmed that a man has been arrested for rash driving and is assisting with investigations.
He rode like he had a death wish
From the moment he took off from the traffic lights at the Stevens Road intersection with Dunearn Road, he was on a charge.
A quick calculation of distance and time gave an average speed of 108kmh. I know this because I took the same route yesterday.
The distance from Stevens Road to the speed camera on the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) is about 10km.
By the time he rode past the speed camera, which took 5min 31sec, I had just reached the BKE.
I kept to the roads' legal limits, giving me an average speed of 67kmh in mid-afternoon traffic conditions. Honestly, I did not want to risk my safety - or anyone else's - on the roads.
RISKS
The rider took many risks.
While entering the Pan-Island Expressway from Stevens Road, he took a wide turn and cut across double white lines into the filtering lane without looking at his mirrors or turning his head to check his blind spot.
As he merged with traffic on the PIE, he cut across to the extreme right lane.
All this while, his helmet-mounted camera continued to point forward.
He checked his blindspot only three times at most.
He was a danger to himself and to other motorists with his aggressive riding.
He rode too close to vehicles ahead or next to him instead of keeping a safe distance.
In some instances, he revved his engine to intimidate others who were too slow for his taste.
At a race track, his quick-accelerating moves may be regarded as skill. On our public roads, it is just a death wish.
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