Woodlands crash: 'I didn't even hear the car coming'

WHEN IT happened, it was so sudden that she literally did not know what hit her. All she knew was that something had knocked into her from behind.

As she fell to the ground, she saw a haunting sight - her two young sons were flying through the air.

A car then passed them before skidding to a stop about 20m away.

The boys landed a few metres away, curled up in foetal positions.

A stunned Madam Ho Bee Keng, 35, then turned to her left and saw her mother-in-law, Madam Gwee Ham Siau, 64, lying in an awkward position, blood flowing from her temples.

Madam Ho, who suffered a broken right foot, told The New Paper yesterday: "I didn't hear any screeching of tyres (before the accident).

"People asked me why I didn't get out of the way. How could I when I didn't even hear the car coming?"

She said the four of them were walking on the pavement along Woodlands Drive 14, which is separated from the road by a 2m-wide grass patch, at about 5.45pm on Wednesday.

They were heading for dinner after watching a television show at their home in Block 511 Woodlands Avenue 2.

Madam Ho was walking next to Madam Gwee, with her sons slightly ahead of them, when the accident happened. Madam Gwee died in hospital at 8pm that night.

After the car stopped, she saw the driver get out and stand beside the door.

Madam Ho said she had the impression that the man might have wanted to leave the scene, so she shouted at him in Mandarin: "Don't go!"

Despite the pain in her foot, she got up and went over to him.

"I grabbed his forearm with both hands. He tried to brush me off, but I dragged him back towards the pavement," Madam Ho said.

"I felt dizzy, so I sat down and made him sit with me. I didn't let him go."

The car's licence plate had fallen to the ground, so she grabbed it as well.

"The driver didn't seem worried, he was just expressionless. He spoke to me in English, which I didn't understand."

By that time, passers-by and people at a nearby playground had converged on the scene.

"There were so many people that even if he wanted to run, he couldn't have," Madam Ho said.
She asked a passer-by to call for an ambulance and the police.

Another fetched her mobile phone, which was in a purse she was carrying.

She called her husband, Mr Oh Boon Sing, a 43-year-old chef, but he did not pick up. She then got through to her brother-in-law, who worked nearby. He cycled over within minutes.

Madam Ho said her two sons, Wei Jie, eight, and Wei Jun, six, had passed out momentarily after the accident. When they came to, they started crying.

"Their faces were pale. Wei Jie kept saying, 'It's painful'."

A passer-by stepped up and told her he would keep an eye on the driver so she could tend to her boys, Madam Ho said.

"Wei Jun said he was very tired and wanted to sleep. I was so afraid and kept on slapping his cheek, telling him not to sleep."

Wei Jie's former kindergarten teacher, who lived in the area, also stopped by to help with the children.

The older boy had a broken left leg, while his brother suffered facial cuts and was bleeding from his anus.

Worried

Madam Ho said: "I was most worried for my mother-in-law. She didn't move, didn't speak, though her eyelids fluttered. Somebody wanted to help move her but I told him not to."

When an ambulance arrived soon after, it left first with Madam Gwee. Wei Jie was taken by a second ambulance while Madam Ho and Wei Jun shared a third.

They were taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, and Madam Ho was discharged that night. The boys are now warded at KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

She said she couldn't sleep that night because she was worried for her children. Her sister-in-law's family is looking after the boys.

"Wei Jun is very frightened. He screams repeatedly that he wants to come home to sleep. His brother keeps dozing off from the medication."

An eyewitness had told TNP on Wednesday night that one of the boys was on a bicycle when the car hit him.

But Madam Ho said the only bicycle at the scene was her brother-in-law's, which he hastily tossed aside once he arrived.

Madam Ho and her husband were busy arranging for Madam Gwee's wake, at the void deck of their block, and her funeral on Sunday.

The widow of four years had been living with the family in the Woodlands flat since her son married Madam Ho in 2003.

"She doted on the children. She was easy to get along with and there were never any squabbles in our home," Madam Ho said.

The 31-year-old driver of the car told Shin Min Daily News that he had been travelling at about 50kmh at the time and had swerved to avoid a child dashing across the road.

The engineer said he had no intention of fleeing and had in fact tried to pick up one of the boys, but was stopped by passers-by.

The police, who arrested the driver at the scene, said yesterday that they are still investigating the case.

Accidents where vehicles mounted kerbs

Sept 13, 2011 

A taxi uprooted two bollards - made of steel sections and concrete - and ploughed into a bus stop in front of Block 315, Bukit Batok West Avenue 2.

Three men at the bus stop suffered cuts and bruises to their faces, hands and knees.

Oct 17, 2010 

A 24-year-old Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officer was killed when his Mitsubishi Lancer mounted a kerb, spun and crashed into a tree at Admiralty Road West.

His 25-year-old passenger suffered serious head injuries and multiple fractures.

Two passers-by walking on the pavement were hit by broken pieces from the car and taken to hospital for outpatient treatment.

May 1, 2007 

A speeding Toyota Vios crashed into a bus stop at Penang Road, injuring six women.

It mounted a kerb and uprooted a steel bus service information stand and two benches at the bus stop.
The driver was later jailed for 15 months and disqualified from driving for 10 years.

May 13, 1998 

Three people were killed on the spot and another four seriously hurt after a sports car ploughed into a Bendemeer Road bus stop.

The driver was jailed for two years for rash and dangerous driving. He was also banned from driving for life.

The accident prompted the Land Transport Authority to install 1,500 of Singapore's 4,000 bus stops with bollards.