A road accident, which involved a trailer and three power-assisted bicycles, took place on Thursday (27 October) night, claiming two lives and left one injured.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said that it received a call to assist for a road traffic accident, which took place at the junction of Pandan Crescent along West Coast Highway, at 11.59pm.
SCDF then dispatched two ambulances to the scene where they found three casualties.
The Police said that a 25-year-old man was pronounced dead on the scene. The other two were conveyed to the National University Hospital (NUH). Unfortunately, one of them, an 18-year-old man, succumbed to the injuries and passed away at the hospital. While the third victim, a 17-year-old man, was injured.
The 34-year-old driver of the lorry was arrested for causing death by negligence. Police investigations are ongoing.
According to The Land Transport Authority (LTA), with effect from 1 February 2016, PABs need to comply with requirements that are aligned with European Standard EN15194 and weigh no more than 20kg, in order to be approved and sealed with the orange seal.
Details of Technical Requirements:
Some netizens expressed their condolences, while at the same time, questioned the use of the PAB. Here are what some of them said :
- JZ Cai wrote, “It was waiting to happen. The Authority should be blame for not regulating the use of these mobility equipments. If no actions are taken by the Authority immediately, there will be more of such accident and perhaps even much worse.”
- 洪 wrote, “Parents with children using ebikes or escooters please open your eyes and see how easily they can go on main roads and highways. The rules are now very confusing and young teens are very tempted to try riding them on the roads.”
- Richard Dias wrote, “Tragedy is waiting to happen for e-scooters. Rip, guys. Don’t the relevant authorities realise this will happen when they legalise this e bikes n e scooters on roads? Hope more cases don’t occur.”
- Loh Wai Poon wrote, “Why were the electric bicycles n three of them on the highway? West Coast Highway is full of trailers going toward Jurong all day long n they travel at high speed. It is a well-known fact n in fact if the cyclists had any sense, they should know when they saw the heavy traffic b4 they rode on the highway. What a human tragedy! LTA must made it clear that highways are out of bound for this type of vehicles when it legalises their use next year.”
- Wong Chew Ming wrote, “These big containers and trailers are always travelling very fast on highways and cyclist should also obey rules and have proper safety features of headlights.”
