By Terry Xu

In November, 4 traffic summons were issued by a traffic warden to a funeral service provider for illegally parking their lorries beside a void deck. It resulted in an uproar among members of the public, especially on the Internet. [See the story here]

Following that case , another furore has emerged online over another traffic summon issued to a coach which was part of a funeral procession.

The following photos were taken by and posted online by Mr Clifford Ng who was in the coach at the time.

funeralsummon

Mr Ng is a friend of the deceased.

One of the photos shows a Land Transport Authority (LTA) officer stopping the coach which is part of the funeral convoy. He later issued a summons ticket to the coach driver.

The hearse with the coffin of the deceased could be seen in front of the coach.

Mr Ng posted the photos on his Facebook page and said:,

“It’s either the government too money minded or this LTA officer cannot resist the commission for summoning a big bus full of sad people.
Our dear bro jimmy Fong’s hearse is infront and yet this officer insist to book our bus for blocking the road. @ Serangoon North Ave 4. “

He added:

“The coach was there about 5 mins and the casket hearse was at the car park. The driver told officer that he could go drive one round but the officer still blocked the coach and asked the driver to wait for his summon. The officer did not accept their reasoning that they were having a funeral.”

funeralsummon_TNP

The New Paper, which reported the incident, said an LTA spokesman “explained that the bus was obstructing other road users in an unsafe manner.”

The spokesman added that “there had been no driver on board the bus nor any indication that the bus was part of a funeral procession.”

However, Mr Ng disputes this.

He said that the driver was there in the coach, otherwise who did the LTA officer pass the summons ticket to? The officer had also apparently signaled to the driver to not move his bus as shown in the photo taken.

“And who could have taken the photo of the officer if there was no person on the bus?” asked Mr Ng.

LTA claimed there was no indication that the bus was part of a funeral procession.

A member of the public sent TOC a video that he took from his car via a camera on his dashboard and showed us the incident from a 3rd person’s point of view.

In the video, the hearse is immediately in front of the coach. Why did the LTA officer fail to see that the coach was part of the funeral?

Simon, a coach driver for 6 years, told TOC that coach drivers being issued summons has been increasing since 2011, especially after the LTA transferred the duties over to CERTIS CISCO.

TOC has called CERTIS CISCO for comments but we were referred to the LTA.

We wrote to the LTA on 28 November but have not received any response at the time of writing.

Mr Ng told The New Paper:

“The driver was saying he could drive away and return to fetch us later… But the LTA officer parked his motorbike in front of the bus to block it. It seemed he was doing his job without any compassion, without caring that someone had died.”

The Chinese papers also reported the incident
The Chinese papers also reported the incident
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