Man whose wife died after his car hits her gives up driving
After the tragedy on Tuesday night, when his wife died after being hit by his car, Mr Quek Chin Ling decided to give up driving.
"I cannot drive any more, because if I look at a car, it will remind me of what happened," the visibly distraught retiree, 67, told The Straits Times yesterday at his wife's wake at Mount Vernon Sanctuary.
Mrs Quek-Ng Siew Fong, 64, a senior deputy director at the Ministry of Manpower's foreign manpower management division, died from severe injuries after she fell and hit her head on the ground when he allegedly reversed into her by accident at a carpark near Block 332, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.
Mr Quek, who declined to reveal more details about the incident, said they had been on their way to attend a briefing there for her trip to China for a week-long qigong retreat next month.
The couple, who had been married for more than 35 years, spent most of their time together.
Mr Quek said they would always have dinner together after she finished work. On weekends, they would enjoy strolls along reservoirs or the Botanic Gardens.
That night, he said he told her he would stay home at their Toa Payoh condo, but she suggested having dinner together in the area before the briefing.
Mr Quek said his wife has been using the car more in recent years because she needed it for work.
She had picked him up from home on Tuesday evening, he recounted, and had been driving when they lost their way in Ang Mo Kio.
It was around this point that he took over the wheel.
"We were running late and were about to give up, but all of a sudden, I saw a deliveryman opposite, so I sought help and asked him for directions."
Deliveryman Johnson Chin, 56, had earlier told ST that he had met them around 7.40pm at nearby Block 325.
They followed him in their car to the correct block, and Mr Quek got out of the car to thank him.
But when he returned to the driver's seat, he did not seem to realise that his wife had opened her door and stepped out, too.
The car reversed and hit her, said Mr Chin.
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