Man, 25, dies after crashing into road divider at East Coast
Man, 25, dies after crashing car into road divider on East Coast Road
A 25-year-old man died early yesterday morning after his Jaguar crashed into the centre divider of East Coast Road in Siglap.
The car tore off about 35m of fencing before hitting a kerb and coming to rest about 100m away.
The crash, which happened in heavy rain, caused a traffic jam affecting morning commuters as East Coast Road had to be completely closed for about an hour until the car was towed away.
An East Coast Road resident thought a building had collapsed when he was roused at 5.28am by the sound of the car crashing, about 60m from his home.
He called the police immediately.
The man, who wanted to be known only as Mr Alan, 47, realised it was a traffic accident only when he looked out of the window of his two-storey terrace house and saw the car, which had been heading towards Mountbatten Road.
Mr Alan, who works in the shipping industry, told The New Paper: "I saw smoke coming out from the car and a few passers-by attending to the driver.
"There was a woman who was trying to pull open the victim's door as well, but to no avail."
Mr Muthu, 42, a nearby resident who was also roused from sleep and rushed to the scene, told Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao that the driver was conscious but trapped in the car when he got to the scene. He became unconscious about five minutes later.
Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers extricated him, and he was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene.
At about 6am, LTATrafficNews tweeted that an accident had taken place on East Coast Road towards the city and it was closed after Siglap Road.
When TNP arrived at the scene at 9am, there was still debris at the accident site, including a dented section of the fencing, and pieces of the car. The crash also led to a massive jam which affected morning commuters for about two hours.
A Subway employee, who wanted to be known only as Madam Gan, 50, saw many people walking past the crash site at 7.30am as she was going to work.
Passer-by Noah Ali, 68, said he was on his way to a coffee shop near Siglap Centre at about 7am when he realised there was a bad traffic jam stretching to Upper East Coast Road.
'REALLY BAD'
The contract worker said: "The jam was really bad. It stretched all the way up to Woo Mon Chew Road."
The jam became worse later.
A short video filmed at 7.50am by Ms Jill Lim, a TNP copy-editor, showed more than 30 buses and 40 private vehicles still stuck in the jam.
SBS Transit also tweeted at about 8am, announcing that services 10, 14, 40 and 155 were delayed along East Coast Road towards the city because of the accident.
An SCDF spokesman confirmed that four vehicles were dispatched to the scene - an ambulance, a fire engine, a Red Rhino and a support vehicle.
Investigations are ongoing.
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