FACE-OFF ON BUS GETS UGLY
EGG ATTACK!
Female commuter's spray annoys passenger in front
Confrontation ends with one smashing eggs on the other
By Hedy Khoo
December 15, 2007
YOU could say that one woman egged the other on and neither would
chicken out until one literally ended up with egg on her
face.
This was what happened in an unusual fight between two female
passengers onboard an SBS Transit bus yesterday.
It started with an exchange of words and ended with one of them
swinging and smashing a plastic bag containing eggs at the
other.
BROKEN SPECTACLES
The impact damaged more than the victim's pride. It also broke her
pair of spectacles in two and bruised her face.
The police were later called in.
This incident took place yesterday morning as SBS Bus Service 65
was travelling along Bedok Reservoir Road.
The bus captain, Mr Thanabalan Subramaniam, 34, said that he was
first alerted to the problem when he heard a woman shouting near
the exit door of the bus.
According to some passengers, the incident was sparked by a
middle-aged woman who was apparently using a spray on
herself.
The spray affected a younger woman sitting in front of her and,
when the latter confronted her, the older woman became upset.
She allegedly stuck out her leg to block the younger woman as she
got up to alight.
A quarrel then erupted.
Mr Subramaniam said: 'I looked at the rearview mirror to see who it
was.
'The next moment, I saw a middle-aged woman stand up from her seat
and smash a plastic bag containing eggs against the head of a young
woman who was standing at the exit.'
He described the aggressor as a plump woman who appeared to be in
her 40s. The victim was a slim young woman in her 20s.
'The older woman swung her plastic bag and used it to hit the young
woman at least two to three times,' he added.
The victim, he said, tried to block the blows with her arms, but to
no avail.
Mr Subramanium stopped at the next bus-stop near Block 745 at Bedok
Reservoir Road and rushed to the women to stop the fight.
It was 6.45am then.
'My first instinct was to check the young woman to see if she was
injured. She was not bleeding, but she had egg running down the
left side of her head and her T-shirt, and egg shells were stuck
all over her,' he said.
'Her glasses were broken at the nose peg into two pieces. She had
picked up one side, but couldn't find the other half.'
The attack left a trail of eggs near the exit, on the ceiling of
the lower deck, the stairway and a window.
Mr Subramaniam said: 'I stepped between them and told them to stop
fighting.'
But his words went unheeded as the women continued shouting at each
other.
Mr Subramaniam said he did not understand their heated exchange as
they spoke in Mandarin.
At one point, however, he heard the older woman shout in English:
'Why should I be scared, I'm Singaporean!'
Mr Subramaniam later found out that the younger woman was a Chinese
national. She was with a female friend, who called the police on
her handphone.
There were about 50 passengers on board, with about 20 on the lower
deck, at the time.
Mr Subramaniam said: 'The other passengers were so shocked and
frightened they quickly moved to the back and stood there.'
He had informed the control station by then and allowed the other
passengers to alight and transfer to another bus.
The older woman then returned to her seat near the exit door.
FRIGHTENED
'She seemed to calm down when she realised the police were on their
way. She even seemed frightened,' he recalled.
She had boarded the bus at Orchard Road and he had recognised her
as he often saw her on his bus.
The younger woman, who was dressed in an orange T-shirt and jeans,
continued to shout angrily at her assailant.
'The older woman suddenly apologised to the young woman. She said
'sorry' in English once,' Mr Subramaniam said.
But what she did next in an apparent attempt to appease the young
woman backfired.
Mr Subramanium recounted: 'I saw her take out $10 from her wallet
and offer it to the young woman who got even more upset.
'She shouted at her even more fiercely while the older woman just
kept quiet.
'She then put the money back into her wallet.
'The young woman looked so angry that even her friend did not dare
to stand near her. Instead, she stood beside me while waiting for
the police to arrive.'
Mr Subramaniam said he was concerned about handling the situation
when the attack occurred.
'I was worried about the other passengers. It was almost peak hour
and people were rushing to go to school and to work. I'm glad
nobody else got hurt,' he said.
'It wasn't funny at that time, but now when I think about it, it
looked like a movie scene. I have never seen people in real life
fighting with eggs.'
The police said they received a call around 6.50am informing them
of a dispute between two women on a bus along Bedok Reservoir
Road.
When they arrived, they advised the two women to keep the peace and
they complied.
FIRST TIME
Ms Tammy Tan, director of corporate communications, SBS Transit,
said that while there have been fights onboard SBS buses, this is
the first time that eggs were used.
She added that such incidents inconvenience passengers by
disrupting their trips. The bus also had to be taken off service to
be cleaned.
She said: 'The eggs were thrown with such force that they
splattered all over the ceiling, seats and floor. We have had to
take the bus off service to clean it.
'We realise that people do crazy things when they are angry, but
this one takes the cake.'
