Yeo Ken How, holding a leafy plant, with friends in June.
March Chua, who took this picture, said she told him many times not
to drive. She passed by the accident site and was shocked to
recognise the car. -- PHOTO: COURTESY OF MARCH CHUA
HE WAS 16, did not have a driving licence but liked to drive his
older brother's car around.
Friends advised Yeo Ken How, a Secondary 4 student of Bedok South
Secondary School, not to take the risk but he did not listen.
Yesterday afternoon, the first day of the one-week school break, he
sneaked a drive in his brother's Suzuki Swift.
It would be his last.
And in a twist of fate, two schoolmates who had warned him several
times not to drive chanced upon the crash site, immediately
recognised the car and had their worst fears confirmed.
It was not clear where Ken How was headed, but around 1.30pm, he
lost control of the blue Suzuki Swift along Bedok South Road and
slammed into a tree.
The impact of the accident crushed the driver's side of the car,
killing the boy instantly. He was alone in the car.
His body had to be extricated from the mangled wreckage by
Singapore Civil Defence Force officers using hydraulic
cutters.
The crash site was just 2km away from Ken How's home at Bedok North
Street 1.
By chance, two of his close friends were on a bus to Parkway Parade
at about 3pm when they passed the crash site.
They recognised the car, alighted immediately and received the news
they dreaded.
One of them, March Chua, 16, broke down when police told her who
the victim was.
Holding back tears, she said: 'I advised him not to drive the car
because it's dangerous, but he wouldn't listen.'
She said she regarded Ken How as her confidant and added that she
had seen him at the wheel of the car on a number of occasions over
the past few months, ferrying friends around.
Secondary 2 student Quek Su Yin, 14, had also seen him driving
around, and told him not to.
But, he added: 'He looked quite stable whenever I saw him
drive.'
Ken How, who was two years away from being legally allowed to apply
for a driving licence, was known to be fond of cars, often spending
his time working on model kits.
His friends described him as a 'very bright boy' who would always
be ready to help them when the need arose.
He was to sit for his O-level exams in just over a month's
time.
The car belonged to his older brother, who is in Australia training
to become a Singapore Airlines pilot.
When The Straits Times arrived at Ken How's home at about 4pm, his
mother, Madam Yeo, was seen leaving the house.
She said that she had received a call a few hours earlier from
someone informing her that her son had died.
'I thought it was a nuisance call, so I scolded the person and hung
up,' she said.
Even when the police called her later, she initially refused to
believe it, thinking it was someone else.
The news only hit home later.
In a quavering voice, she simply said: 'I didn't know he could
drive.'
The housewife, believed to be in her 50s, said that she did not
know Ken How had left the house as she had gone out early in the
morning.
She then rushed off.
A neighbour told The Straits Times that she had seen Ken How walk
past her flat, dressed in a dark T-shirt and shorts, at about
9am.
Bedok South Secondary School principal Krishnan Aravinthan said the
school was saddened to learn about Ken How's death.
He said: 'The school is helping affected students and staff to cope
with the incident.'
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