Police investigating lorry driver who allegedly caused 7-hour KPE entrance closure
The police are investigating a lorry driver who allegedly caused a massive seven-hour closure of the Nicoll Highway entrance to Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) on Monday after several heavy metal plates fell from his vehicle.
The driver’s alleged failure to secure the metal plates is believed to be the focus of the investigation.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said it was alerted at about 4.45pm to the incident at the entrance of the KPE tunnel in the direction of Tampines Expressway.
An LTA spokesman said vehicle recovery services and traffic marshals who were deployed to the scene to investigate found several heavy metal plates on the slip road leading to the entrance, rendering it impassable.
She said the slip road was immediately closed and vehicles were guided out of the incident site.
“Preliminary assessment was that the metal plates could have fallen off from a lorry, and this was confirmed when the driver of the lorry subsequently returned to the incident site with lifting equipment to retrieve the metal plates.”
The spokesman added that the fallen metal plates damaged the surface of the road and, as a result, the LTA had to carry out roadworks and resurface parts of the road.
Videos shared online showed a long line of vehicles in a jam in the slip road on Monday afternoon.
@zaobaosg 朝往淡滨尼快速公路（TPE）的加冷—巴耶利峇快速公路（KPE），在尼诰大道（Nicoll Highway）的入口处出现障碍物，导致入口处暂时关闭。#zaobaosg #sgnews #sgincident #tpe #kpe #sgroad #马路 #关闭 #交通 #阻塞 ♬ original sound - zaobaosg
Some of the vehicles were seen going against the flow of traffic as they were directed away from the incident site.
There have been no reported injuries from the incident.
The slip road was reopened to traffic at around 12.10am on Tuesday, after the roadworks were completed.
The LTA spokesman said the authority would like to take the opportunity to remind drivers of goods vehicles to check that their loads are properly secured before moving off, to ensure the safety of all road users.
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