Safety labels for open-top vehicles soon?

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 25 May 2000.

Safety labels for open-top vehicles soon?

25 May 2000

Straits Times

THE Land Transport Authority will look into putting labels on open-top pickups and lorries, indicating the maximum number of passengers they can carry.

It is also looking into other safety measures, including installing hand straps and handholds or using luminous tape on the backs of such vehicles.

Dr John Chen, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, said this in Parliament on Tuesday. He was responding to concerns from MPs for the safety of passengers in such goods vehicles.

Goods vehicles can be used to carry workers if they observe safety rules.

For example, pick-up trucks must have side railings and there is a limit to the number of passengers.

He said the LTA has publicised these rules and, together with the Traffic Police, has stepped up their checks against vehicles which flout the safety procedures.

About 480 goods vehicles were booked last year for breaking safety rules, compared to 206 vehicles in 1998.

Dr Chen added that he believes the number of accidents involving passengers from such open-back goods vehicles is very low.

(c) 2000 Singapore Press Holdings Limited.

5 hurt in collision

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 24 November 1999.

5 hurt in collision.

By YEOH EN-LAI.

24 November 1999

Straits Times

FIVE people were hurt, three of them seriously, in a chain collision of five heavy vehicles yesterday afternoon.

It happened in heavy rain along the Kranji Expressway. On the northbound expressway, traffic tailed back for at least 5 km.

From the flyover above, about 50 curious onlookers craned their necks to watch the Singapore Civil Defence Force rescuers in action.

The accident happened at around 3 pm, apparently after a lorry carrying computer products stopped in the expressway's extreme left lane under the Choa Chu Kang Road flyover.

A bus that ferries factory workers hit the lorry, and then three more lorries piled in.

One lorry belongs to Ascent Logistics. The second was a Malaysian-registered trailer, and the last was an empty diesel truck, a 10-wheeler registered to Ming Hup Trading Co.

Two people were pinned inside the cab of the 10-wheeler.

Rescuers used a device called the Jaws of Life to pry open the twisted metal. The device works like a huge pair of pliers in reverse.

The diesel had just been unloaded in Tuas.

The driver of the empty Ascent Logistics lorry was also rescued the same way.

All three were taken to the National University Hospital in serious condition, a Singapore Civil Defence Force spokesman said yesterday.

Two others were treated as outpatients.

Yesterday, soon after the mishap, the driver of the factory bus, Mr Sim Koon Lin, 26, and a co-driver of the trailer lorry told The Straits Times what happened.

Mr Sim said that to avoid the lorry that had stopped under the flyover, he tried to get into the next lane.

He said: "But there was traffic so I could not cut out. The next thing I heard was bang, bang, bang.

"It was raining heavily so it was hard to judge the distance."

Mr Azhari Mohamed, 21, who was next to Mr Abdul Rashid Main, 32, the driver of the trailer lorry, said he was stunned because it all happened so fast.

He said in Malay: "The driver had no time to react. We all could not brake in time."

Police are asking eyewitnesses to contact the Traffic Division on 222-2233.

(c) 1999 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

Rules on carrying people in lorries

This letter was published in the Straits Times on 30 April 1999.

Rules on carrying people in lorries.

30 April 1999

Straits Times

Goods vehicles can be used to transport workers if the owners meet certain safety requirements.

WE THANK Mr Chan Kin Seng for his feedback in "Ban people sitting in the backs of lorries" (ST, April 17).

Currently, owners of goods vehicles are allowed to transport their workers on their trucks only if they can comply with a set of rules to ensure the safety of theworkers. These rules specify the manner and the conditions under which workers can be transported on a goods vehicle. There is also a 50 kmh speed limit imposed on all goods vehicles.

The Land Transport Authority and Traffic Police will take enforcement action against drivers who fail to comply with the safety requirements.

Drivers found flouting the rules for the first time are liable to be fined up to S$1,000 or to be jailed up to three months. Repeat offenders can be fined up to S$2,000 or jailed up to six months. JOHN CHANG Head, Media Relations Division Public Affairs Department Singapore Police Force

TOH SU FEN Deputy Director Corporate Communications Land Transport Authority.

(c) 1999 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

Workers squat by the road, then on open lorries

The following is a letter published in the Forum page of the Straits Times on 12 July 1990.

Workers squat by the road, then on open lorries

12 July 1990

Straits Times

WHEN one approaches the junction of Jalan Bukit Merah and Alexandra Road in the evenings, one is likely to see groups of night-shift workers waiting to be picked up by "coverless" lorries.

Normally quiet and expressionless, these workers squat by the roadside.

When a lorry arrives, they would swiftly climb in and, again, take up a squatting posture.

To the observer, some interesting questions arise: What happens if it rains;

will they be thrown out of the lorry when there is an accident; and why can't the employer use a bus?

Indeed, such a scene is increasingly incompatible with the current economic prosperity in Singapore whereworkers' welfare has improved substantially over the past three decades.

Can we explain why children are being sent to schools in air-conditioned mini-buses and their fathers have to squat in an insecure lorry to earn a living to feed them?

Or, is it because these workers work for small sub-contractors who have done

them a great favour already by taking them to work so that they save time and money? Have the employers perhaps considered that this "favour" may be an affront to human beings?

Surely, an alternative to squatting on a lorry would be useful in providing a better image of Singapore vis-a-vis its workers' welfare.

(c) 1990 Singapore Press Holdings Limited