Three Singaporeans died and one other was injured in a traffic accident during a family’s vacation to the United States on Friday (Dec 22).

The family had been travelling north towards the Grand Canyon in a silver Hyundai at 2.21pm local time, when they collided head-on with a green Dodge van while crossing the painted median, a spokesman for Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS), Trooper Kameron Lee, told The Straits Times.

The car subsequently crashed into a third vehicle, while the van fell into a ravine.

The van driver, who is from Spain, also died at the scene.

Mr Lee added:

“The driver of the Hyundai and two passengers were pronounced deceased at the scene.

“One additional passenger of the Hyundai was transported to Flagstaff Medical Center.”

According to Today newspaper and The Straits Times, the survivor of the crash is Ms Justlyn Yeo Jing Hui, a first-year student at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

She is reportedly in a stable condition.

The highway was closed for seven hours following the accident.

Said Mr Lee:

“Five people were injured in total.”

It is understood that the Singapore Consulate-General in San Francisco is assisting the family’s relatives who have flown to the US.

A freelance model suddenly experienced numbness in half her body, along with a splitting headache during a karaoke session with her friends on Dec 12.

The model, Ms Karen Stella Wong, 28, was promptly conveyed to Singapore General Hospital (SGH) where she went into a coma and subsequently died three days later, reported Shin Min Daily News.

According to Ms Wong’s father, Mr Laurence Wong, 60, doctors certified her cause of death as acute intracerebral haemorrhage, a condition where bleeding occurs within the brain tissue.

He told The Straits Times that Ms Wong had no known medical history and it had just been a regular outing with her friends when tragedy struck.

Mr Wong reiterated:

“My family has no history of acute intracerebral haemorrhage. Once in a while, she got a headache like normal people do.

“The SGH doctor said that even a common headache could be a symptom, but no doctor would ask a normal guy with a headache to go for a scan.”

Under the Human Organ Transplant Act first enacted in 1987, Ms Wong had to donate her organs upon her death.

The Human Organ Transplant Act states that all Singapore citizens and permanent residents above the age of 21, of sound mind and who have not opted out, will have their kidneys, hearts, livers and corneas removed upon their death if they died in a hospital, their organs are suitable for transplant and there are suitable recipients for the organs.

Mr Wong said that he struggled with the idea at first, and was surprised when told that his daughter’s organs had to be donated.

He eventually came to terms with it, donating Ms Wong’s two kidneys and liver.

Said Mr Wong:

“I heard they managed to do transplants on three patients, and I feel it’s a blessing that at least she can save three people.”

Ms Wong was cremated on Dec 20.

Mr Wong revealed that his main concern now was his wife’s wellbeing, citing:

“My main worry now is my wife. They were like sisters. How is she going to handle it? I put her up in a relative’s house for the time being,

“It’s very difficult for me. I cried for two days. No matter what, I told myself I must be strong for my wife and my mother. My mother does not know yet. She does not read newspapers.”

He added that his daughter was a cheerful individual who loved to joke:

“She didn’t give me much problems.

“I just recall the last moment she left the house – she said ‘daddy I’m going out’, and she was still joking with the maid and my mother.”