Passenger dies after SMRT bus flips along Dairy Farm Road
By Alice Chia
POSTED: 21 Jul 2013 12:04 PM
UPDATED: 21 Jul 2013 8:31 PM
An accident involving a SMRT bus along Dairy Farm Road towards the Bukit Timah Expressway on Sunday morning has left a man dead and two others injured.
SINGAPORE: An accident involving a SMRT bus along Dairy Farm Road towards BKE on Sunday morning has left a man dead and two others injured.
Bus service 700A had flipped over.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it received a call for help at 8.57am.
Its officers found a man, who was a passenger, trapped in the bus.
Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
SCDF said another male passenger and the male driver were injured.
They were sent to National University Hospital, where both have been warded and are in stable condition.
SMRT said that the driver has been with SMRT since January last year and has been driving the route since July 2012.
It also said the driver had a clean service record with no prior accidents or complaints against him.
He had been last at work on an 8.5-hour shift on 20 July and was deployed at 7am on Sunday, having had more than the required eight-hour rest period between his shifts.
"SMRT has a fleet of 1,137 buses, which undergo strict and thorough preventative maintenance checks. These include mandatory LTA inspection repair, as well as predictive and corrective maintenance of components such as braking and steering mechanisms. The bus involved in this morning's accident was last maintained on June 21, and was given a clean bill of health. No brake or steering related problems were noted during the inspection," said Kalai Natarajan, vice president of corporate and marketing communications at SMRT.
SMRT said it is saddened by the incident and is working with SCDF and the police on the case.
- CNA/fa/xq
- wong chee tat :)
