Madam Poh Ah Gin, 78, was killed by a reversing Comfort taxi. The
woman, who had been collecting cardboard to recycle, was hit
twice.
Reports noted that the Hyundai Sonata was reversing into a parking
lot when the vehicle suddenly rolled backwards, mounted the kerb
and hit Madam Poh.
Mr Lim Kah Kong, 35, a tow truck driver, told The Straits Times
Online that he shouted at the taxi driver to stop when he saw that
Madam Poh had been hit.
"But his car continued to lunge back and forth, and he hit her
again," he said.
The cabby's son, known only as Sam, said his father was an
experienced driver with no past traffic offences.
"He repeatedly told me that there was something wrong with the
cab," he said. "But there's nothing we can do about it now."
MARCH 17, 2016
A Comfort cab caused a chain collision at Block 702, Bedok
Reservoir Road.
The cab was trying to reverse into a parking lot when it surged
forward instead, hitting a red car.
The impact caused the red car to scrape the side of a blue lorry
beside it, before mounting a kerb and hitting the front of a white
lorry on the other side of the car park.
The taxi reversed into the void deck of Block 702, nearly colliding
with three teenagers who were there.
Except for the taxi, the three other vehicles were parked.
Madam Sandy Goh, 48, a volunteer at the neighbourhood's Senior Care
Corner, rushed to the scene after receiving a flurry of calls from
senior citizens about the accident.
She said the taxi driver seemed to have escaped injury.
"He looked quite confused. I heard the police officer asking him
what had happened, but he said he didn't know," she said.
DEC 25, 2009
In 2011, a cabby was fined $800 for hitting four pedestrians and
crashing into a 7-Eleven store.
The cabby was in the taxi queue at the Tiong Bahru Plaza when his
Hyundai Sonata suddenly surged forward.
He ran into a man and three women, before crashing into the
entrance of the 7-Eleven store.
His defence counsel said it was his client's first time driving the
Hyundai cab. He was not used to the sudden burst of speed when the
accelerator was pressed suddenly.
The court heard that as the cabby was moving forward in the taxi
queue, some pedestrians stepped off the kerb. They seemed to be in
the path of his taxi.
Instead of hitting the brakes, his foot slipped and he stepped on
the accelerator.
TNP