A week before Hari Raya Aidilfitri, a 66-year-old stall helper lost the lower half of his right leg after an accident while he was riding a motorised bicycle.

Mr Hassan Jalal was hit by a car while trying to change lanes as he approached Bendemeer Primary School to pick up his step-grandsons, aged eight and 12, at around 3pm on June 29.

Mr Hassan, who considers himself an experienced rider as he had been using the motorised bicycle daily since 2013, said he was moving from the extreme left to the extreme right of the four-lane Bendemeer Road towards the school gate when the collision occurred.

Mr Hassan, who has seven step-grandsons, aged eight to 23, told The New Paper in Malay on Tuesday: “I was flung about five metres and landed in a heap on the road.

“As I sat up, I was shocked to see that my right leg below the knee was totally mangled. My right foot looked like minced meat.”

The injury was so severe, doctors had to amputate his leg just below the knee.

Still, Mr Hassan, who has two adult step-children, is thankful to be alive.

Tears glistening in his eyes, he said: “I’m lucky I always wear a helmet when I ride my bike. Otherwise, I’d definitely be dead from head injuries.”

His other injuries included cuts on his limbs and a fractured right rib.

He is now recuperating at the Ang Mo Kio-Thye Hua Kwan Hospital.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said Mr Hassan was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital after they were alerted to the accident at 3.12pm.

A police spokesman said investigations are ongoing

Police statistics show that the number of deaths and injuries from accidents involving conventional and motorised bicycles has gone up. (See report, above.)

Mr Hassan, who used to earn about $700 a month, lives in a one-room rental flat in Geylang Bahru with his wife, her daughter, four step-grandsons and his stepson-in-law.

MODE OF TRANSPORT

His motorised bike, bought in 2013 for $850, was his primary mode of transport.

He said: “I’m not rich so the bike was a good investment. Taxis are very expensive, and I don’t find buses and trains convenient. This bike was the best option as it was affordable and took me places.”

It took him five minutes to ride from his home to the school to pick up his step-grandsons daily.

He said the driver of the car called for an ambulance.

While waiting for it to arrive, Mr Hassan called his stepdaughter, Madam Noryani Abdul Rahman, a 40-year-old mother of six.

The housewife said she was walking home after shopping for groceries when she got the call.

“When I reached him about 10 minutes later, I almost fainted when I saw his right leg,” she said.

Mr Hassan is worried about his medical bills because he does not have insurance.

His 68-year-old wife earns about $800 a month as a cleaner, and Madam Noryani’s husband, a delivery driver, brings home about $1,000 a month.

Mr Hassan said: “I dread to think about the bills as I have a big family with many mouths to feed. But a social worker visited me on Monday and told me not to worry.”

Other cases

FEB 27, 2016

Two boys, aged 16 and 18, were flung onto the bonnet of a car at the junction of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 and Avenue 8 after their e-bike crashed into a car.

The teenagers were speeding and had beaten a red light when the accident happened.

They were taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital for treatment and later discharged.

DEC 24, 2015

Odd-job labourer Ang Thiam Beng, 55, died after his e-bike collided with a lorry.

He was making a right turn from Pioneer Road North to Jurong West Avenue 4 when the accident happened.

He died in hospital two days later.

DEC 2, 2015

An 11-year-old boy on an e-bike crashed into Madam Nancy Tay, 64, and her sister, Lucy , 71,on a pavement at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4.

Madam Lucy Tay had a hairline fracture in her right shin, while her sister had cuts and bruises.

The boy had been speeding. The police classified it as a case of a rash act causing grievous hurt.

APRIL 18, 2015

Coffee shop owner Tan Heng Huat, 40, was riding his power-assisted bike on a pavement in Paya Lebar Way when he collided with Madam Heng Lian Cheng, 68. She had a head injury and facial fractures.

Tan was jailed for five weeks on July 11 this year.

This article was first published on July 15, 2016.
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SINGAPORE – The Government could hold an airwave auction to determine Singapore’s fourth mobile operator later this year, The Straits Times reported on Friday (July 15).

The auction, which could be held as early as October, could allow the new telco to roll out services as early as April 2017, the report added.

Final auction rules published on Thursday stated that contenders can submit application forms from Sept 1.

It will take 20 days for the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) to process the documents, and one week of training on how to use the auction system will be provided to potential bidders, The Straits Times added.

Last July, IDA proposed to offer heavily discounted mobile airwaves to attract a fourth telco to set up shop here.

The new telco would reportedly be offered 60 MHz worth of mobile frequencies for $35 million, which is 45 per cent cheaper than the full reserve price.

The Straits Times reported then that fibre broadband service provider MyRepublic and a unit of Consistel were considering applying to become the fourth telco.

ljessica@sph.com.sg

The calibre of students being admitted to top secondary schools should be more even under the new PSLE grading system, said experts, and this could “level out” how these schools are perceived.

But until this “levelling out” happens, parents said they will face a bigger dilemma in choosing whether to risk aiming for a top secondary school, or go with a safer bet by picking a less popular one.

This has emerged as one of the main concerns among parents after the Education Ministry on Wednesday announced changes to PSLE grading that will kick in from 2021.

The move is part of a larger shift away from an overemphasis on academic results.

PSLE 2015 results released

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

The Straits Times, The New Paper

The current T-score system will be replaced by scoring bands known as Achievement Levels (AL).

There will be eight bands, and the PSLE score for the Secondary 1 posting will be the sum of the ALs of four subjects.

The highest score will be 4, and the lowest, 32.

The expectation is that more pupils will qualify for popular schools, and there could be more computer balloting to decide who gets a place.

MOE estimates that only one in 10 will have to ballot.

Also, a pupil who lists a school as his top choice gets priority over another who places it lower – if their scores are the same.

Some parents believe this means putting a very popular school as the No. 1 choice for the child carries a bigger risk from 2021.

The child could lose out on the luck of the draw and end up at a school third or fourth on his list.

A few parents are even asking for the secondary school posting exercise to be broken down into “phases”, so they know how many places are left in a school after, for example, the four-pointers are allocated spots, before making their choices.

Jalan Besar GRC MP Denise Phua, who heads the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education, said the changes were a step in the right direction but added that there may be a need to fine-tune the system if more balloting is needed for popular schools.

Sociologist Paulin Straughan said it may take more than five years for the “funnel effect” – where most parents aim for a few specific schools – to end. This will be especially true for schools with more established names.

Education policy expert Jason Tan said the new system can be quite “confusing” for parents, as more secondary schools will have similar qualifying scores.

“There’s a lot more pressure on them to think deeper about school choice,” he said.

MOE has said it wants parents to pick schools that best serve their children’s interests and strengths.

And this is a good thing.

“Instead of prematurely ruling out schools, it’s better for pupils to be matched to schools that are actually just as good, where they can also grow just as much,” said Associate Professor Tan, who is from the National Institute of Education.

Sales manager Grace Yong, 35, who has a son in Primary 1, said the new system will encourage her to look beyond entry scores and at the programmes being offered by schools.

“We will need more time to make a thorough decision,” she said.

MOE said it will be providing more information on what schools offer at a later date.

Housewife Narayana Vanisri, 38, said she hopes to find a secondary school that will help her seven-year-old daughter Thaswika pursue her interest in dance and art.

School, she said, is not just about grades, but also personal growth.

ateng@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 15, 2016.
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Wear plain clothes, take a taxi and behave normally.

Singapore bank robbery suspect David James Roach, 27, had scribbled these three “points to note after carrying out a robbery” in a notebook that was recovered after his arrest in Bangkok, it was revealed yesterday.

On a separate page, he had also written in brackets “make money” next to a list of three cities – Singapore, Chiang Mai and Dubai – that formed his escape route, Major- General Apichart Suriboonya told Shin Min Daily News.

However, Maj-Gen Apichart, who heads Thailand’s Interpol unit, added that Roach did not specify in his notebook plans to rob the Standard Chartered Bank branch in Holland Village last Thursday.

Bank robbery at Holland Village Standard Chartered Bank

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

The Straits Times, Twitter, Shin Min Daily News, Reuters, Baker & Cook

Roach, a Canadian, allegedly entered the bank at around 11.30am, passed the teller a slip of paper and fled to Bangkok on the same day with about $30,000 in cash.

On Sunday, he was nabbed at Boxpackers Hostel in Bangkok’s Ratchathewi district, after Singapore issued an arrest warrant to the Thai authorities.

The Thai police were able to trace his whereabouts in 54 hours, deploying more than 100 officers to check 400 closed-circuit television cameras in the vicinity of Central World mall.

The first lead came from footage captured at the airport, which showed Roach boarding a white taxi, said Maj-Gen Apichart.

During a three-hour interrogation, he reportedly told an officer: “Please send me back to Canada, I don’t want to return to Singapore.”

Roach’s profile on the Couchsurfing website, seen by The Straits Times, reveals that he is well travelled, having previously backpacked across Turkey and Iran.

A Couchsurfing user who hosted him in Turkey said: “He was with a woman companion… He was a backpacker and he really likes to travel.”

His profile stated that he was planning a trip that would include stopovers in Norway and London, and possibly India or Sri Lanka.

Roach studied engineering in Calgary, and is from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, in eastern Canada. Besides travelling, his interests include sports, reading and playing the piano.

On Wednesday, Thai immigration police chief Nathathorn Prousoontorn said that it would be possible for him to be extradited to Singapore, even though the two countries do not have an extradition treaty.

He clarified that Roach was detained because his right to stay in the country was cancelled after Singapore issued an arrest warrant.

Singapore has no extradition treaty with Thailand or Canada.

In the event that Roach is deported to Canada, Singapore will have to pursue the case with the Canadian authorities.

nghuiwen@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 15, 2016.
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