One hurt in bus accident along Jurong Town Hall Road

SINGAPORE: A bus passenger was injured in an accident along Jurong Town Hall Road on Friday morning.

It was 6.15am and SMRT bus service 176 was travelling towards Bukit Panjang Interchange when it mounted the kerb and hit the roof of a bus stop.

The bus even crashed through the bollards at the bus stop.

There were about 20 passengers on the bus when the incident happened and one of them was injured.

An eye witness said: "Around 6.20am, the bus was on its way when it suddenly went up the kerb. About nine to 10 people fell down, including myself. After I fell, I got up and went straight to the driver. He wasn’t conscious and his body was on the steering wheel. I poked him a little and asked him to wake up. After a couple of slaps, he woke up and looked out, then he realised his bus was on the kerb. An ambulance came about five minutes after the accident happened."

The remaining passengers were transferred to another bus to continue their journey.

SMRT said the driver has been suspended from duty while investigations are ongoing.

The Land Transport Authority said safety bollards at bus stops were first installed in 1999 to reduce the impact of vehicles mounting kerbs and they have been effective.

This led to the introduction of the island—wide safety bollard implementation plan.

Safety bollards are generally installed at bus stops along high speed roads.

Exceptions are bus stops at bends and without bays.

As of December 2011, 2,659 out of 4,600 bus stops have been provided with safety bollards island—wide.

But experts said the weight and speed of vehicles can affect the effectiveness of the bollards.

Associate Professor Chin Hoong Chor , civil engineer at National University of Singapore said: "Even though the bus is higher in terms of weight and therefore the force involved is higher. But the speed is also low. So balance it together. The bollards at a bus stop generally should be sufficient to hold a typical vehicle from crashing through. But that does not mean that the bollard won’t give way because if the bollard is too rigid, then besides protecting the people behind the bollard, it may also injure the occupants in the vehicle."

— CNA/cc/ck