By Seven more people have sought treatment at National University Hospital (NUH) and Ng Teng Fong General Hospital following the collision at Joo Koon station involving two SMRT trains on Wednesday (15 November), bringing the total number of casualties as a result of the accident to 36 individuals.
In a joint statement, Land Transport Authority (LTA) and SMRT stated that there was one case of walk-in at NUH and patient has returned home since.
They also said that there were five new walk-in cases at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and the hospital received one new case conveyed by an ambulance and the patient is currently being treated.
Among all seven patients, four have been discharged, while three are still being treated. No details of their conditions were reported.
The statement stated that the Ministry of Transport (MOT), LTA, and SMRT are in touch with all the injured passengers.
“Other passengers who were affected by the collision yesterday may reach out to duty officers at any SMRT station (along the North-South Line, East-West Line and Circle Line) for assistance at any time,” the statement said, adding that they can also call the SMRT hotline number at 1-800-336-8900 for assistance.
Among 36 people who were injured, two of them are SMRT’s staffs, one train captain and one assistant station manager. They were being taken care of on Wednesday and discharged at the same day.
In an earlier statement, LTA and SMRT stated that according to their preliminary investigation, the accident was due to the “inadvertent” disabling of a software protection feature, which resulted in a train at Joo Koon platform being mistakenly profiled as a three-car train instead of a six-car one in the system after it passed a faulty circuit.
The second train initially stopped at the correct distance of 10.7 metre behind the first one. However, it misjudged the distance between itself and the train in front of it a minute later and lurched forward resulting in a collision and 517 commuters who were on board the second train were thrown by the impact, with several suffering knocks, fractures and bruises.
SMRT and LTA have also stated that they stopped train services between Joo Koon and Tuas Link to facilitate investigations on Thursday as a precaution.
Observers of the incident have noted that injuries from the incident might be more than what is being observed as some may not find it necessary to seek treatment for their injuries as it may just be a bruise or there may be no symptom as a result from the injury.