Teenage worker dies in head-on lorry crash

Straits Times, Published on Jul 4, 2012

By JALELAH ABU BAKER

The early-morning crash in Tanah Merah Coast Road led to 19 people in total being hospitalised. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE CIVIL DEFENCE FORCE

A TEENAGE Indian worker was killed and 18 others injured after the lorry they were in was involved in a head-on collision with another lorry yesterday.

Mr Kathiravan, 19, died after being flung out, along with three others who sat in the back of the vehicle with him. He had been working here for five months.

The accident, in Tanah Merah Coast Road, comes after rules were introduced last year requiring lorries ferrying workers to be fitted with canopies and higher side railings. Such fittings were made compulsory after two accidents in 2010 that killed three workers and injured 54 people.

A safety supervisor from Mr Kathiravan's company, Beng Khim Construction, said the lorry was fitted  with the safety features. But the impact of the crash could have caused the railings to break, said one of the workers.

There were 25 workers in the lorry, including the driver.

Eighteen of them are currently warded at Changi General Hospital with head and facial injuries. Of these, four people, including the 30-year-old driver, are in intensive care.

The remaining six have been discharged. Mr Kathiravan's family has been notified of his death.

The other lorry was empty except for its driver, who was also injured and hospitalised.

One of the workers who rode upfront with his seatbelt fastened said he knew something was amiss as the other lorry came towards them. Said Mr C. Alagesan, 31: 'I saw that the lorry was coming very fast. 

It was not steady.'

The married man added that it was 6.15am at the time, and the sky was still dark. He alerted the driver, who then moved the vehicle to the extreme left of the two-way road. But in the next second, the other lorry swerved right into their lane and smashed into them, said Mr Alagesan.

'I feel very upset that that young boy died. He was the youngest of us all, and he was very hardworking,' he added.

Another worker, Mr M. Tevendran, 32, who was sitting at the back, said he felt the vehicle brake hard. 

He closed his eyes, and the next thing he knew, he had been flung out. The railings had come undone in the impact.

Mr Tevendran broke his ribs but has decided not to tell his family in India. The father of three young children said he does not want to worry them.

The workers were just two minutes into their journey to their worksite at National University Hospital when the crash took place. Details of the incident remain unclear, though it is believed that the driver of the other lorry was sober.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said one of the lorry drivers had been pinned under the wreckage.

Police investigations are ongoing.