Tag: Rochor Road Accident

Random Discourse – Second Rochor Road Accident

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There are a number of things that irks me. Superstition is one of them. Now that there’s a second accident at the Rochor Road – Victoria Street junction, It disturbs me that some people are now saying that the junction is haunted. They argued that the reason why there are so many accidents is because an evil dead spirit (or spirits) is looking for a substitute. Frankly I wished I had a time machine to send some of these clowns back to the Dark Ages. Whatever happened to investigative, scientific thinking?

Let me put it straight – that junction is not haunted! The beauty of technology is that at times it even saves me the trip of going down to the place to take a look to back up my own views on why the things that has happened at that junction is about as natural as taking a shit in the morning.

Here are some pictures obtained on Street View on Google Earth. These pictures are dated March 2009. Notice the overhead traffic light facing Victoria Street towards Kallang at the junction. I have made the effort to identify them for those with the reverse of hawkeye. Before anyone scream about these pictures being outdated, just take a look at them first as I am not done making my point.


Looking back at the overhead traffic light on Victoria Street towards Kallang
View of overhead traffic light from Rochor Road

Bus Stop and overhead traffic light in the distance from the direction of Victoria Street
Click for full size

Now on to the point I am trying to make. Take a look at this recent picture which Michael Cheng gave me permission to use.

The overhead traffic light facing Victoria Street towards Kallang is gone. It has been removed. I recalled some comments about this junction being accident prone, and the newspapers even reported that they caught several people beating the light at that area when their reporters stationed there one of the nights. However, the newspapers failed to tell us whether the accidents were a really recent occurrence or something that has been ongoing for years.

Personally, I think it is a fairly recent occurrence. This junction has existed for years but it was only recently modified for the construction of the Downtown Line (if not also the Bugis Station for that line). Did the problems only start after this modification?

Now consider this. When a driver cruises down Victoria Street at night, there is enough distance between the Victoria Street – Middle Road junction until the pedestrian crossing at Bugis Village to pick up speed. If both the traffic signals are synchornised and “red”, the driver would have slowed down as he approaches. However, if the traffic signal at the pedestrian crossing (just a mere 50 meters or more before the junction) has been green when the driver drove past the Victoria Street – Middle Road junction, and there isn’t another overhead traffic light at the Rochor Road – Victoria Street junction, the driver may be misled into believing that all traffic signals are in his favor and thus step on the gas towards the Ophir Road – Victoria Street junction. There simply isn’t enough reaction time for him to react when he realised that his perception was in error after that.

If this is the case, all the accidents that has happened at this junction is hardly supernatural but rather a situation that is caused by an oversight of the Land Transport Authority [LTA]. While the LTA can argue that a driver should slow down when he approaches a traffic light (even when it is in his favor), it cannot absolve itself from the responsibility of ensuring that drivers are not misled by traffic signals into making decisions that could cause harm not only to themselves but also other road users. LTA should explain why the overhead traffic light at this junction was removed in the first place and whether its removal is the cause of these horrifying and even fatal traffic accidents.

In my opinion, on top of restoring the overhead traffic light at the Rochor Road – Victoria Street junction, the LTA can consider turning off just after midnight the traffic lights at the pedestrian crossing just 50meters before the junction since there will be few people using that junction after midnight. Even better, the LTA should just remove this pedestrian crossing permanently since it is a hazard to pedestrians anyway. Just do a search on Youtube for “Traffic Light Bugis Village” and take a look at the videos put up by concerned members of the public.

Next, relocate the bus stop further up to Illuma. Pedestrians can then use the overhead bridge between Bugis Junction and Illuma for crossing. Apart from the reasons mentioned above that would support the removal of this pedestrian crossing, its removal should also smoothen traffic and reduce congestion along that part of Victoria Street as well.

I sincerely hope the LTA will act promptly to do something about the traffic signals at the Rochor Road – Victoria Street junction, and also to evaluate the feasibility of removing the hazardous and problematic pedestrian crossing between Bugis Village and Bugis Junction and to move the bus stop further up the road. That should put an end to all that mentally unhealthy, superstitious views that are now making their rounds on the Internet.

Update:
From TODAYonline: “After two accidents occurred at the same spot in as many weeks, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) yesterday said it would synchronise the timings of the traffic lights in the area. The traffic signals at the junction of Rochor Road and Victoria Street, and the pedestrian crossing linking Bugis Junction and Bugis Village will now turn green at about the same time.”

*sigh* Cosmetic changes. What about the “human jam” problem at the pedestrian crossing linking Bugis Junction and Bugis Village in the day and the traffic congestion it caused?

Current Affairs – Rochor Road Accident

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Warning: Graphic Content

This video is the actual footage of the Rochor Road accident taken by another taxi’s in-car video recorder. Had they been one second faster, they would have met with certain death.

It is painful to watch when you realise that the inconsiderate action of the Ferrari driver took the lives of 2 innocent people, cabbie Mr Cheng Teck Hock (a father leaving behind 3 children) and Japanese passenger Ms Ito Shigemi. It also brought grievous injury to motorcyclist Mr Muhammad Najib Ghazali.

Sadly, instead of portraying the facts as they are, the headlines of the evening Chinese tabloids Shin Ming was awash with the alleged talent, wealth and success of Ma Chi, the culprit. It is as if the main stream media went full force to made the heinous act of the culprit less abominable. I am not alone because it was not long before netizens spoke about the perceived injustice in the matter.

Meantime, I have no idea what happened to the victims until Monday, when I read that the cabbie has passed away. It is heart wrenching to read his family’s account. (There was almost no report on Ms Ito. All I did read was a brief write up that her brother was the only person who went to identify her body, because her parents did not want to see their beloved daughter disfigured. Her brother has politely refused interview. Unfortunately I could not find any English version of the same report.)

Excerpts from an article on insing.com

But Mr Cheng, the sole bread winner of his family, apparently hung on because he wanted to let his family know what really happened, according to the newspaper.

His family told the cabbie to “go in peace, since your children are already grown up”, but Mr Cheng, who was seen shedding tears, hung on.

On Sunday evening, after the family found out how the accident happened, they repeated their plea to Mr Cheng.

“We know it was not your fault. You did not drive recklessly,” they told him.

On hearing this, Mr Cheng opened his eyes and his heartbeat slowly stopped, the newspaper said.

As if the slanted and favorable reporting of the culprit by the local media isn’t bad enough, I start reading articles about how the crash fuels xenophobia in Singapore. While I cannot (and I won’t) deny that shit stirrer sites like Temasek Times are clearly xenophobic, there is no denying that part of the anger also stemmed from the perceived absence of justice (if not the perceived failure or weakness of Singapore in exacting justice) when dealing with offending foreigners. This perception has steadily built up over the last two years. It began when former Romanian diplomat Silviu Ionescu fled the country after his hit-and-run accident in December 2010. While Ionescu is now on trial in Romania’s courts, justice has yet been meted out to him.

It was then further aggravated when news broke that the police took almost a year to investigate a brawl at SunTec City where 4 people were assaulted by three expatriates. To make matters worse, after finally pressing charges against them, two out of three of the culprits jumped bail and escaped the justice of Singapore’s Courts of Law. While it had originally looked like the police only acted after public pressure, this now convinces some Singaporeans that anyone can come to our country, bully our people and even flout our laws and get away with it. Add that on to the competition we face from foreigners in all aspect of our lives – from jobs to housing, from transportation to places in our schools and it is of no surprise that things boiled over.

Of course, beyond the competition and the perceived injustice, there is also an element of annoyance towards the deplorable journalism standards of Singapore’s newspapers. Personally, I don’t really care about the nationality, identity, success or wealth of the culprit. Even if the papers did not want to stand up and point it out as wrong, I personally expect the papers (and in this case Singapore Press Holding’s [SPH] Shin Ming Daily) to at least report the facts as is without trying to slant it either way. It is undisputed that the taxi had the right of way and it was hit even when the traffic signals were in its favor. The very least the papers could do was to give us an educated report on what the family can do in this case to seek compensation, whether from the culprit himself or from the insurance policies that cover such matters. Granted, there is a distant possibility that the entire accident may be one of mechanical failure and no one would be any wiser until all the facts are out, just what exactly has the Ferrari driver’s success got anything to do with anything? For Shin Ming to emphasise on the Ferrari driver’s supposed wealth, success and talent is just wrong on so many levels. It almost sounds like it was trying to absolve Ma Chi from the idiocy he has committed.

If SPH thinks they’re going to avoid a massive xenophobic outbreak by sugar-coating the entire thing and painting Ma Chi in a positive light, they’re dumber than dumb. While Temasek Times’ meaningless foreigner bashing is grating, SPH’s foreigner praising (which SPH has a long history in doing) is simply nauseating. It isn’t helping to improve Singaporean-foreigner relationship at all. In fact, it is simply making it worse because the obvious bias will continue to enforce Singaporeans’ rejection of whatever attempts the government makes to smoothen relations between Singaporeans and foreigners. That’s not mentioning that if SPH keeps this up, the next time a careless driver driving similar cars may actually find himself lynched by a mob regardless whether he is foreigner or Singaporean because the anger will be on the wealthy as well.

Addendum:
It is also my considered opinion that Comfort Delgro needs to do one important thing – review the safety features of the Hyundai Sonata cabs. First of all, there had been 2 cases of fire. In this particular incident, the entire engine block was knocked 30 meters out of the cab. I seriously cannot perceive how the engine can fly out of the cab even in spite of the speed of the Ferrari because the bolts that secure it to the engine compartment are normally huge. I am not suggesting any responsibility on the part of the cab company but am raising this matter as a commuter’s concern on the safety of the cabs we frequently use.

Addendum 28.05.2012:
In view of my subsequent blog post, I must also point out that Ma Chi and his passenger Wu Wei Wei are perhaps also victims if my assertion in that blog post is true.