Driver and front seat passenger survived when car plunged into a
ditch along Old Upper Thomson Road. <!-- Author --> By
Carolyn Quek , Diana Othman and Teh Joo Lin <!-- more than 7
paragraphs --><!-- show image if available -->
<!-- story content : start -->A LATE night spin for four
buddies on what used to be a Grand Prix track here came to a tragic
end when the car plunged more than one metre down a slope, and
slammed sideways into trees, killing two of them in the back
seat.
The two dead passengers - both students of Nanyang Polytechnic,
were apparently not wearing seatbelts. The driver, a Republic
Polytechnic student and front passenger, also from Nanyang Poly,
survived with injuries.
The car was travelling along Old Upper Thomson Road towards
Seletar Expressway when the accident happened at about 11.45 pm on
Tuesday, police said.
While negotiating a curve not far away from what is famously
known as Devil's Bend, the car went off road and moments later,
plunged more than a metre down slope before hitting one of the
trees in the wooded area.
The four youths, aged between 18 and 20, were trapped in the
Mitsubishi Lancer, and rescuers from the Singapore Civil Defence
Force had to extricate them.
Mr David Li, 18, suffered head injuries and died on the spot.
His friend, Mr Mervin Teo, 19, who was found slumped over him, was
taken unconscious to Tan Tock Seng Hospital where he died at
1.20am.
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<!-- Background Story --> The 20-year-old driver and front
seat passenger, Mr Tan Han Leng, 20, were sent to Singapore General
Hospital. The driver was discharged on Wednesday morning, while Mr
Tan suffered cuts and underwent surgery for injuries to his left
hand.
Recounting the accident from his hospital bed at SGH, Mr Tan
told The Straits Times soon after he emerged from an operation to
his injured left hand, that his group of four, together with
another two friends who were in another car, had earlier gone for
supper at a roti prata restaurant in Thomson Road to celebrate
their friend passing his driving test.
Mr Toh Tian Boon, also a Nanyang Polytechnic student, who had
just cleared his driving test, then asked where he could try out
his newly acquired driving skills.
Mr Tan said he suggested the nearby former Grand Prix track at
Old Upper Thomson Road, which he warned the group was 'notorious
for accidents' and advised them to belt up.
After driving one round, Mr Toh left the four as he had to send
his passenger, a girl student from Nanyang Polytechynic, home.
Mr Tan said his group decided to go for another spin as they
felt 'bored'. That was when the tragedy struck.
'Our car suddenly skidded. For a few moments, I felt weightless.
Next, I remember the car landing on its sides,' Mr Tan, who was the
front seat passenger, recalled.
'I called out to my two friends sitting at the back. There was
no response from them, except heavy breathing.'
Mr Tan's mother, Madam Linda Loh, 58, an administrator, said she
was told of the accident when her son called her on his mobile
phone from the scene after midnight.
'He sounded panicky and just told me 'Mom. Accident. I am okay
but my two friends are critically injured. He just hanged up,' she
told The Straits Times while waiting for her son to come out of
operation at SGH on Wednesday afternoon.
Madam Loh said the four friends were 'as close as brothers' and
often went out together.
Mr Li was cremated at Mandai Crematorium on Wednesday
afternoon.
Friends remember him as 'chubby and cheerful'. Mr Hoe Guofeng, a
full-time national serviceman, 22, who was in the same basketball
group as Mr Li about seven years ago, said: 'In our eyes, he was
always a cute and chubby kid as he was the youngest in our
clique.'
'He was very chatty, always cheerful and entertaining. You will
never meet as cheerful a friend as him.'
Friends of Mr Li from Nanyang Polytechnic and his alma mater,
Mayflower Secondary School, paid their last respects to him at
Mandai Crematorium.
His distraught elder brother, Dennis, 27, an operations
assistant, said he last saw Mr Li at home at about 8.30 pm on
Tuesday night before he went out to meet his friends.
Miss Judy Chen Nien Tsu, 29, an adult student from Nanyang Poly,
described Mr Li and Mr Teo as 'easy-going and fun-loving, with
positive attitudes'.
Mr Li's old schoolmate at Mayflower, Mr Farid Rahmad, 18, added:
'He's a joker. He loved to joke and often made us laugh.'
Anyone with information on the accident can call the traffic
police at 1800-547-1818.
