HK buyer owns “unluckiest” license plate

A Hong Kong woman splashed out 130,000 US dollars for a car licence plate carrying “4444″, despite the number’s traditional links to death in Chinese culture, a report said Monday.

The bidder paid one million Hong Kong dollars in a government auction of 270 unusual licence plates on Sunday, the Chinese-language Apple Daily said.

The number four is often avoided by Chinese people because its pronunciation is similar to the word for “dead”.

Some skyscrapers do not include floors that end with the number, such as 14th or fourth, as they are less likely to be rented. (story)

60 yr old woman blocks taxi after dispute

A 60 yr old woman was so enraged by a taxi driver showing her an obscene sign, she planted herself in front of his taxi.

Madam Lee Geok Hiok, a cleaner, was parking her car along the road behind People’s Park Centre at 11.30am on Tuesday when the taxi driver sounded his horn.

She said: ‘I gestured to him to wait and he made this rude sign with his finger.’

She marched to his stationary taxi, opened the driver’s door and asked him why he showed her the bad sign.

‘He tried to deny doing so but then apologised,’ she said.

She called the police and held onto the door to prevent him from driving off. (story)

2 month old baby escapes car crash unhurt

A 2 month old baby girl miraculously escaped death in a horrific car crash on Thursday morning that killed her parents, grandmother and brother on the North-South Expressway. She was flung out of the seven-seater vehicle the family was in when it skidded and slammed into two trees along the the 150 km stretch of the expressway near Muar.

The crash happened at about 7.30 am. The road condition was said to be dry then.

Jolene Bong, who was flung more than 10m from the wreckage, was unscathed but her grandmother Pang Chee Seng, 68, mother Kor Yee Lin, 36, and brother Justin Bong, two, died on the spot. Her father Bong Kwang Hong, 37, a travel agent, died shortly later at the Tangkak Hospital. (story)

Victims testify at Wong Heng Chiang car crash trial

6 victims of an out-of-control car which crashed into a bus stop along Penang Road recounted the trauma of being hit by the charging car while waiting for their buses one evening.

One of them, Madam Tan Hong Eng, 67, was so badly affected by the May 1 accident last year that she is unable to sleep and has developed psychiatric problems.

‘I am still in pain from my injuries. I still feel upset and depressed about the accident and I am unable to sleep properly at night.’

‘I find it difficult to walk or to sit for long without pain,’ she said in her conditioned statement tendered in court on Monday.

She and another witness, Madam Leng Lay Ling, 57, gave conditioned statements as their attendance was not required because they both have difficulty walking. The other four victims testified in court on Monday on Day One of Wong Heng Chiang’s trial. (story)

More bus drivers Chinese

Bus operators are turning to China for drivers as more Singaporeans here shun the job, complaining of irregular hours and low pay. This is the first time SBS Transit and SMRT are looking beyond Singapore and Malaysia in their effort to hire more drivers.

SMRT’s first batch of 34 drivers from China - it has hired about 100 to boost its pool of 1,700, 80 per cent of whom are Singaporeans - arrived in January.

Meanwhile, SBS is bringing in 20 drivers to start work soon on two-year contracts.

SBS Transit spokesman Tammy Tan said that if its first batch of bus captains from China performs well, it might hire more of them and also consider drivers from other countries.

It currently has 5,200 drivers, 75 per cent of whom are Singaporeans or permanent residents. Malaysians make up the rest.

Both companies said they are turning to China as they find it increasingly difficult to hire Singaporeans.

It is a problem that has surfaced in the past. (story)

SMRT fined $400k for service disruption

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has fined SMRT nearly $400,000 for causing severe disruption to train services betwen the Tanah Merah and Pasir Ris MRT stations on Jan 21. Services were interrupted for seven hours and 17 minutes because one portion of a maintenance train hit another parked portion during routine maintenance works.

This happened at 3.10am on the rail section between the Tampines and Simei MRT stations. The incident immobilised one of the locomotives and a rail grinding vehicle, rendering the tracks impassable.

Normal train services resumed at 12.45pm, after the vehicles were removed.

Investigations showed that the incident was the result of SMRT not complying with operating procedures. It had not secured the parked portion of the maintenance train, made up of a locomotive and a wagon, during maintenance works. (story)

Do you have an illegal licence plate?

Giving a car a Continental touch with a number plate that resembles those used in the European Union might be all the rage, but it is, in fact, illegal. At least two number plate manufacturers have been importing the moulds for these plates directly from Europe, fonts and all, at the cost of up to $80,000.

But the EU number plates use letter and number fonts that are smaller than the Land Transport Authority requires them to be, and their colours might be against the rules, too.

For instance, letters and numbers on licence plates on Singapore registered cars must be 70 mm high and 50 mm wide. (story)

Formula One ticket buying process a major hassle

When tickets for the world’s inaugural Formula One night race went on sale on Thursday morning, fans were expecting a well-oiled ticketing machinery at work. Instead, what happened when the starting flag came down was complete chaos.

A server error caused the entire ticketing system to foul up. Fans tried for hours to get through the ticketing website and failed.

Even as late as 5pm, fans called up The Straits Times to say they were having problems getting into the F1 website to buy tickets.

Those who tried calling also could not get through.

Some who tried both and failed rushed down in the hope they would have better luck buying over the counter. They were wrong. (story)

Promising student dies in vehicle crash

She had the world at her feet but death robbed medical student Lee Nian Ning of a brilliant future.The straight As student, former state swimmer and accomplished Girl Guide was on the double-decker express bus from Penang to Kuala Lumpur which crashed near Slim River on Friday.

Nian Ning, 21, a Public Service Department (PSD) scholar at the University of New South Wales in Australia who was on her way to visit friends in Kuala Lumpur, was among three passengers who perished when the driver lost control of the bus and slammed into a divider.

“We learnt that the driver had 13 summonses against him. Why had the company not screened him and realized that he was not competent to drive that bus? (story)

5 new ERP gantries for motorists

Motorists can expect to pay more over the next few months to use the roads when five new ERP gantries are up, many in the heart of residential areas. The gantries are in Upper Bukit Timah Road (outside Hume Park), Toa Payoh Lorong 6, Upper Boon Keng Road, Kallang Bahru Road and Geylang Bahru Road.

All except the ones in Toa Payoh Lorong 6 and Geylang Bahru Road have been completed.

The Land Transport Authority has not announced when these new gantries will be switched on, but already residents are concerned why their neighbourhoods are targetted.

Commenting on the gantry outside Hume Park, Bukit Timah resident Mr Burven Lee, 43, said: ‘The road here does get jammed up. But will a gantry solve the problem?’ (story)