On 12th December, an SMRT worker was involved in an unfortunate accident involving a maintenance vehicle on the MRT tracks near Joo Koon station which resulted in his right foot being crushed and needed amputating.
The accident happened about 4.10am, said SMRT in a statement. It caused a delay in the start of the train service on the East-West Line in both stations till about 6.20 am.
The worker, who has a wife and three adult children, was rushed to the National University Hospital where he was warded in intensive care after the operation.
SMRT corporate communications vice-president explained, “Our staff’s right foot was injured as he was on track preparing for an engineering vehicle to move back to the depot after completion of maintenance works this morning”.
SMRT had said in December that they would carry out a full investigation into the incident, adding that its maintenance teams took a safety timeout yesterday morning.
At the time, SMRT had declined to comment on the accident, saying only that the investigations were ongoing.
TOC has reached out to SMRT just recently to ask for an update on their investigations. So far, no response has been received from SMRT.
The incident in December was the most serious SMRT-related accident since the death of two SMRT trainees in March 2016 who were killed by an oncoming train.
Mr Nasrulhudin Najumudin, 26, and Mr Muhammad Asyraf Ahmad Buhari, 24, were investigating a possible fault on the track when they were killed by an oncoming train.
Investigations into that incident later revealed that appropriate preventive safety protocols were not in place. SMRT was fined $400,000 for the incident.
Correction: Date of accident was 12th December, not 13th as previously stated.
