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)

Woman dies in car crash

She was the family’s sole breadwinner but on Thursday morning, 29-year-old Rachel Quek lost her life in a tragic car accident which left two others injured.

The human resource professional died about nine hours after a car driven by her boyfriend, Mr Chiang Kwok Wai, rammed into a tree in a suspected drunk driving case.

Ms Quek was in the backseat of the blue Suzuki Swift. The couple’s friend, Mr Tay Huay Kia, was also in the car.

It was travelling along Bedok North Avenue 4 on Wednesday at around 11pm when it skidded.

It mounted the road kerb and went through a wire fence before ramming into the tree. The impact wrecked the car so badly that the Singapore Civil Defence Force took 15 minutes to extricate all three, who were taken to Changi General hospital.

Mr Chiang, 30, suffered light injuries and was discharged on Friday.

However, both passengers suffered serious facial and head injuries. While 30-year-old Mr Tay is still in intensive care, Miss Quek succumbed to her injuries at about 8.30am on Thursday. (story)

Dragon boater remembered as “obedient son”

Filial and obedient is how dragon boater Chee Wei Cheng’s cousin remembers fondly of him. ‘He is always there for his mum and he always acts like a mature adult, and has been this way since young,’ said Mr Wilson Tan. ‘My aunt has lost a very filial son, and she is very fragile.’

Mr Tan, who declined to give details about himself, had accompanied Mr Chee’s mother and younger brother to the accident site in Phnom Penh to pray and say their final farewell to the 20-year-old national dragon boater.

He had died with four others when their boat capsized last Friday after a race on Tonle Sap River. (link)

Motorcyclist in hospital after freak accident

A freak accident on Sunday afternoon saw a motorcyclist’s neck sliced open after it got caught in a lightning conductor that had come loose from a pedestrian overhead bridge. The motorcyclist Mr Adrian Ng was travelling along Thomson Road with his pillion rider and girlfriend Carol Hwee when it happened just in front of the Thomson Meidical Centre.

The incident left the 28-year-old chef in Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s high dependency unit with severe injury to his neck.

His voice box and thyroid gland is also damaged and doctors have also created a tracheostomy – an opening in his throat – to help him breathe. (link)

Singaporeans come to Malaysian worker’s aid

Another example of Singaporean charity. We are good people and we help when we can. Just don’t take advantage of our good intentions.

“Mountain climber David Lim is among several people moved by the plight of Malaysian worker Abu Bakar Evos, who lost his legs in a horrific workplace accident this week. These people who called or e-mailed The Straits Times on reading about the 25-year-old odd-jobber’s plight said they wanted to help him rebuild his life after he recovers from his injuries.

Mr Abu’s left leg below his knee and his right foot were severed in a paper compactor at waste-paper recycling firm Likok in Defu Lane 4 on Tuesday. He had climbed into the compactor to clean it when the accident happened.” (story)