I was onboard SBS8194Y to Changi Airport Terminal 1. This is my
account of the actual incident.
I was sitting at the 2nd last seat on the bus. After the usual
security check involving the Certis Cisco Auxiliary Policemen
coming onboard to check the bus for any unattended or suspicious
luggage, the security barrier on the ground was lowered and the bus
proceeded slowly forward.
The front cleared without any problem and after the back
wheel went over the lowered barrier, there was a loud bump at the
back of the bus and it felt like the back of the bus had hit the
floor. The passengers including the driver were shocked. The
PRC driver then parked the bus at one side to allow the buses
behind through and went to the back to inspect the damage. The
passengers onboard were all looking at one another not knowing what
actually happened. The bus driver came back after 2-3 minutes
or so and he carried some metal debris onto the bus. The Indian
Certis Cisco guard was telling the PRC driver to park the bus at
the basement so as not to block the other buses behind but the
driver could not understand English and he was unwilling to do
so saying in Mandarin that the back bumper had
already came off how was he to driver to the basement. The
passengers and I helped to translate to the driver what the guard
was saying and vice versa but the driver did not want to move for
fear of damaging the bus further. He then merely parked the bus at
one side just after the barrier to let the behind buses
through. I asked the driver what has happened and he replied
that the Certis Cisco guards had actually press the button to raise
the barrier before the whole bus had actually cleared it.
After 5 minutes or so, some frustrated passengers began
alighting to walk down to the terminal basement themselves when
SBS8195U came along with another PRC driver. Our driver then
stopped 8195 and we were then transferred onto 8195. The driver of
8194 was telling the driver of 8195 what happened and the driver of
8195 was saying this happened few times already as the Cisco Guards
were to quick to raise the barrier but luckily save for scratches
on the undercarriage, there were no serious damages to the
buses.
8195 then moved off after all passengers had boarded and when I
left, the 8194 driver was still arguing with the guards. The 8195
driver then told me he was supposed to be behind 8194 by 11 mins
but now he has to rush given Service 27's high passenger
loading and he will have to forgo his break at Terminal 2.
Didn't have time to take pictures as everything happened so
fast.
I see... Thanks for the info, it cleared a lot of queries...
IMHO these Certis Cisco/AETOS pple should do their job better.
Ruining another company's fleet of buses(especially new ones) is
not good... Wonder whether SBST would send the maintanence bill to
CAAS/AETOS/Certis Cisco...
