1 killed and 16 injured in Tuas Checkpoint accident

Two women were flung out of a bus in a traffic accident yesterday morning at Tuas Checkpoint.

One of them, aged 35, was pronounced dead at the scene. Another was seriously injured.

Both women were found at the foot of a flyover by Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) paramedics.

A total of 16 people were injured in the accident, which happened when the bus, which was travelling along the Second Link bridge towards Tuas Checkpoint, crashed into a railing.

The bus driver, 59, has been arrested for causing death by rash act, police said yesterday evening.

The SCDF said it was alerted to an accident at about 4.25am yesterday.

The bus was against the side railing of the flyover when SCDF arrived, and the driver, who was trapped in his seat, had to be freed using hydraulic rescue equipment.

The bus driver and 11 passengers were taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) and National University Hospital (NUH).

Four other passengers, who sustained minor injuries, did not want to be taken to hospital.

The New Paper understands that each hospital received six people. Four have been discharged from NUH, while the other two are still receiving treatment, an NUH spokesman told TNP at 5pm yesterday.

A spokesman for NTFGH told TNP at 1pm yesterday that five people had been discharged, and one was hospitalised in stable condition.

Some of the passengers on the bus are employees of American software company Hewlett-Packard (HP), said a spokesman for the company.

She said: "Our thoughts are with those that were involved and we are doing everything we can to provide assistance to affected employees. We are concurrently working with the authorities to get more information."

The accident had caused the heavy vehicle lane to be obstructed, and bus and lorries were unable to enter the checkpoint at arrival.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) subsequently closed the lane.

Vehicles departing Singapore also experienced a traffic jam as some of the buses and lorries that were entering Singapore had to be diverted to use the departure lane to return to Malaysia.

The lane was reopened at 10am, said the ICA in a press release.

Speaking to Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao, a 30-year-old man, who wanted to be known only as Mr Zhang, said he received a call at around 7am from his 22-year-old sister telling him that she had been in an accident.

He added that his sister has been working at an HP factory in Singapore for a month, and she would take a bus to the factory every morning.

A woman who wanted to be known only as Vani, 43, said she was sleeping on the bus when she woke up to the crash.

She told Wanbao: "There was a sharp pain in my limbs, and it was very chaotic."

The woman, who works in Singapore, said she was sitting in the middle of the bus at the time of the accident.

"Everyone was resting, and I believe when the bus was travelling down the bridge, the bus hit the railing," she said.

She said everyone in the bus started screaming and there were many broken pieces of glass, cutting some of the passengers.

The passengers had boarded the bus from Kulai in Johor, she said.

Ms Vani said she was taken to hospital and left on the same day in a wheelchair. She was given two weeks of sick leave.