When she sees a car while crossing a road, her legs tremble.

Her bicycle, which she rode often for light exercise, now sits untouched in a corner of her four-room flat.

All because she saw her friend, Madam Lin Shui Yu, 59, lying motionless after being run over by a cement mixer on Monday morning.

Still visibly distraught by the recollection, Madam Lee Xiu Mei (left), 61, told The New Paper yesterday in Mandarin: “My head throbs whenever I close my eyes… I don’t think I’ll ever forget seeing my friend’s crushed body on the road.

“I still find it hard to accept her death. It feels like a nightmare.”

Madam Lee, a retiree, was cycling home to Block 453, Yishun Street 41 with Madam Lin, who was also a retiree, and another friend after a trip to the Sembawang Hot Spring that morning.

The trio had waited at the traffic light at a crossing at the T-junction between the Yishun Avenue 9 and Yishun Central roads.

When the pedestrian light turned green, they crossed the road by cycling in single file.

Madam Lee took the lead, with Madam Lin and the other friend following behind.

Tragedy struck when a cement mixer made a left turn from Yishun Central into Yishun Avenue 9 and ran over into Madam Lin.

Madam Lee said she turned around when she heard her friend screaming for her to stop.

“One minute my friend was alive and well but now, she is gone,” said the petite woman.

A police spokesman said a 50-year-old man has been arrested for causing death by a rash act.

Madam Lee, who is still struggling to come to terms with her sudden loss, told TNP that the three of them were good friends and neighbours who would meet each other every day.

They would either go to the wet market, or go on walks at the nearby park every morning.

Madam Lin and Madam Lee became good friends four years ago after becoming neighbours.

At home, Madam Lin was also someone her family relied on.

“She is the treasure of the family. Losing her is like losing my limb,” said her 37-year-old nephew, Mr Lin Hong Fu, who works in the electronics industry.

He described his aunt as someone who took good care of her family.

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

The New Paper, Shin Min

CLOSE-KNIT FAMILY

Every weekend, their family would gather at Madam Lin’s house, where she would cook up a feast.

“We had so many people, we could fill two to three tables,” Mr Lin said.

Madam Lin had two children and five grandchildren. But her family dinners also included her extended family.

She also regularly cooked their favourite food and passed it to them.

The close-knit family updated each other on their daily happenings via their group chat on WhatsApp every day.

Madam Lin and her husband are both permanent residents born in China, and have been married for 40 years.

She was known to be very loving towards her husband, who does renovation work.

She would call every day to ask him how much longer he would take to get home from work so that she could heat up food for him.

Once he got home from work, Madam Lin would greet her husband at the door with a glass of warm water.

“They were a model couple – they never fought,” said Mr Lin.

Mr Lin added that ever since the accident, Madam Lin’s husband has been unable to sleep or eat, and has been crying uncontrollably.

“The mere act of picking up his chopsticks would remind him of (Madam Lin) and he would get distraught again,” said the nephew.

Madam Lin’s husband declined to be interviewed when TNP visited the family at Madam Lin’s wake last night.

Mr Lin said the family is expecting more re­latives to fly in from China to see Madam Lin for one final time.

A relative in Singapore is helping them with their visas.

“We tried sending photos and updates to them but they are just too sad.

“They needed to see her for the last time,” said Mr Lin.

For Mr Lin, he is trying to let the news sink in and hoping to seek answers to his aunt’s death.

He had been busy with the wake and funeral preparations.

“Our top priority now is to take care of my uncle (Madam Lin’s husband) as he still can’t accept this news.

“If she died naturally, it would be easier to swallow. But this accident is too sudden for us to accept,” said Mr Lin.

This article was first published on May 18, 2016.
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The then wife of alleged match-fixing kingpin Dan Tan Seet Eng purportedly knew that his two laptops held incriminating evidence against him – so she removed them from their home to prevent graft investigators from finding them, a court heard yesterday.

Guan Enmei also feigned ignorance about the laptops in an interview with the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) after Tan had been taken in for questioning, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Jasmin Kaur said at the close of her trial.

Guan, 41, is accused of lying to a CPIB investigator about Tan’s computers on June 6, 2013.

Under cross-examination on the second day of the trial yesterday, Guan, a China-born Singaporean who divorced Tan last year, admitted lying to the CPIB, but not in relation to the laptops.

The lie was about taking a taxi, instead of a limousine, she said.

On May 9 last year, two days after she was prosecuted in court for her single charge, Guan sent a letter to the CPIB. It read: “Sir, I am very sorry that I told lies on some issues. I know I am wrong…

“Let me say sorry again. I am wrong. Please give me a chance. I beg you to excuse me.”

Asked to explain what she meant by the “lies”, Guan said she had been chauffeured by a limousine driver to the CPIB office in Lengkok Bahru, but told an investigator that she had taken a taxi from Rivervale Crescent instead.

This prompted District Judge Lee Poh Choo to ask Guan: “Can you explain why this is so important that you have to write (to the CPIB investigator)?”

Guan replied through a Mandarin translator: “This is the only mistake I made.”

She agreed, however, with DPP Kaur’s suggestion that she wrote the letter in desperation, hoping for mercy.

But Guan denied knowing Tan’s laptops held evidence which he did not want the CPIB to get hold of. “He is not someone who will be happy to let me check his things,” she said.

Pointing out that they married in 2003, but she found out about Tan’s last marriage in 2008 and another former marriage only in 2013, Guan said: “I was ignorant of my own marriage… Would he allow me to ask about his things?

“I’m just a housewife. As long as I receive my maintenance fee every month that’s good enough,” she later added.

Guan also initially denied knowing that Tan was being investigated for fixing football matches at the time she was called to the CPIB’s office on June 6, 2013.

However, she admitted she had known about it after DPP Kaur showed her an interview she gave to The New Paper in March 2013 in which she said that reports and allegations of Tan’s involvement in match-fixing were “100 per cent false and untrue”.

“It’s so laughable and funny,” she told the newspaper.

Pressed by the DPP, Guan agreed that by March 2013, she knew that Tan was being investigated for international match-fixing. “I asked my husband about this, but he said he was not willing to talk about it,” she added.

The judge is expected to deliver her verdict on June 13.

If found guilty of knowingly giving false information to a graft investigator, Guan, who is out on $10,000 bail, faces a maximum punishment of a $10,000 fine and one year in jail.

Tan, described by Interpol as “the leader of the world’s most notorious match-fixing syndicate”, is being detained without trial under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act.

This article was first published on May 18, 2016.
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She had just finished breakfast after dropping her daughter off at school and was on her way home when she learnt that a fire had broken out at a pre-school opposite her home at Shelford Regency condominium.

“I could not get home because there were fire trucks and an ambulance, the entire Shelford Road was blocked,” said the housewife, who wanted to be known only as Mrs Tan.

Her other daughter, 21, was still sleeping at home when the fire broke out at Pre-School By-The-Park on Shelford Road, near Watten Estate in Bukit Timah, yesterday morning.

The young woman woke up when her maternal grandmother, who was also at home, alerted her after smelling smoke and seeing a column of thick smoke billowing above the pre-school.

The fire had started on the first storey of the three-storey semi-detached house and had spread upwards.

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Tay Denver, Joanna Seow, Dios Vincoy Jr, The Straits Times

A Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) spokesman said it was alerted to the fire at around 6.50am.

It sent two fire engines, two Red Rhinos, one ambulance and two support vehicles and officers put out the fire within an hour using three water jets. SCDF said part of the pre-school’s roof collapsed while officers were trying to put out the fire.

There were no reported injuries.

The Straits Times online reported that children usually get dropped off at the premises from 7am and classes start at 9am.

Residents of Shelford Regency were also evacuated and gathered at the condo’s swimming pool.

Mrs Tan said residents were knocking on one another’s doors to alert everyone about the evacuation.

The fire alarm also sounded.

“A resident who lives on the floor below mine knocked on my door and told my mother to evacuate,” said Mrs Tan, who is in her mid-40s.

CONCERNED

“I am concerned because this is the second pre-school fire incident that happened within 100m of my home,” added Mrs Tan

The previous pre-school fire took place in 2012 at Carpe Diem Kids Academy on Watten Drive.

Another Shelford Regency resident, a 29-year-old maid who wanted to be known only as Ms Nesmelyn, said she saw the smoke at 6.45am.

She evacuated her employer’s condominium unit with her employers and their five-year-old son when the fire alarm went off.

“I was afraid that the fire would reach our condo or that there would be an explosion,” she said.

A man who lives in the house next to the pre-school said his unit was undamaged by the fire.

Employees from the pre-school declined comment.

vivlmy@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on May 18, 2016.
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The family of an elderly man who died after his mobility scooter tipped as he was backing out of a lift are bewildered by their loss and unsure of what to do next to find answers to what happened.

Mr Lim Hang Chiang, 77, died on Monday morning from a brain haemorrhage, about 16 hours after the incident at Block 247, Pasir Ris Street 21. The floor of the lift was about 15cm higher than that of the lobby when the lift doors opened.

He did not realise there was such a big gap as he was backing his mobility device out of the lift on Sunday morning, on his way to have breakfast with his older son.

His younger son, Mr Lim Keng Swee, 45, told The Straits Times: “I don’t know how to feel right now. Even if there is some form of compensation, I don’t know if that is ever enough.”

Yesterday, MPs from the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC paid their respects to Mr Lim at his wake in Pasir Ris.

Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and MP Sun Xueling, who went at about 4.30pm, had a 30-minute private conversation with the bereaved family.

Both DPM Teo and Ms Sun declined to comment on the incident.

Photo: The Straits Times

Mr Lim’s older son, Mr Eric Lim, said: “We told the minister that we want a full investigation to be done, and to let us know the final result.

“We would like to see the parties involved dealt with. If we think the compensation does not meet our requirement, we will not accept it and we might seek legal action.”

The 51-year-old sales manager added: “The minister did not elaborate much on the case but told us that if we need any help, we can let the MPs know.”

Madam Amerly Lim, Mr Lim’s only daughter, said: “The minister assured us he would look into the safety of all HDB lifts in Singapore.”

Elderly man dies after toppling over lift gap in Pasir Ris

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min

The 50-year-old housewife added: “When we take a lift, we assume it’s safe. No one would think that they would die just from using a lift.”

Mr Lim Keng Swee said his father had been using the mobility device for about seven years without incident.

Mr Lim leaves his 77-year-old wife, Madam Kwek Sar Moi, three children and six grandchildren.

Madam Lim said: “We are all still trying to collect (ourselves). My mother has not fully reacted to the news. She couldn’t cry.“

The extended family had planned to have a joint birthday celebration on Sunday for Mr Lim, who would have turned 78 this Friday, and a granddaughter, who turns 21 today.

The granddaughter, Ms Erika Lim, who had recently graduated from Temasek Polytechnic, said: “My auntie sent us the photo and I was so shocked to see Ah Gong on the floor. I asked if Ah Gong was okay, and at that time he was still talking and conscious. We didn’t know how serious it was.

“But in the evening, my dad called us all to go to the hospital. Ah Gong was already in a coma by then.

“It is very unexpected. We didn’t know it would be that bad. Everyone is still in shock.”

This article was first published on May 18, 2016.
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Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council will comb its records for previous complaints about lift misalignment cases and whether any action was taken, MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC Zainal Sapari said yesterday.

The town council chairman also told The Straits Times that lifts with such problems would be checked again.

This comes after a 77-year-old man died in hospital on Monday after he fell and hit his head in a lift accident at Block 247, Pasir Ris Street 21, on Sunday.

Mr Lim Hang Chiang was backing out of a lift on the ground floor of his block when his mobility scooter toppled because the lift was not level with the lobby floor.

Lift experts said the acceptable industry standard for lift misalignment ranges from 6mm to 10mm.

“Anything more than 10mm is too much, and rare,” said lift engineer Kok Peng Koon, 80, who described the case as “puzzling”.

The lift that Mr Lim took was about 15cm above the lobby ground when its doors opened.

Elderly man dies after toppling over lift gap in Pasir Ris

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min

Mr Kok added: “There are sensors on every floor in the lift shaft to ensure that the lift car stops at the right level. Something could have happened to the condition or position of these sensors.”

Engineer Lum Chong Chuen, 71, said the lift’s governor rope, which prevents overspeeding, could have suffered wear and tear, affecting the lift’s alignment.

When The Straits Times visited Mr Lim’s block yesterday, there was a seal on the doors of Lift A and a notice of service suspension on every floor of the 12-storey block.

Several residents said both lifts there had previously shown signs of misalignment when they stopped at different floors.

Retiree Chew Kwee Eng, 78, who lives on the sixth floor, started noticing the problem one year ago, and the level disparity was more pronounced on the ground floor.

The wheelchair user said: “I am now so scared to use the lift. If I can, I will not leave my house.”

Accounts executive Iris Heng, 40, said the problem also occurred at the neighbouring Block 245, where she lives, about two months ago.

Some residents have raised concerns that the 24-year-old lifts at Block 247 could be too old, but experts say this should not matter.

“Lifts can last more than 28 years and components can be upgraded from time to time,” said Mr Kok.

Dr Teo Ho Pin, MP and coordinating chairman for People’s Action Party town councils, said that all HDB-installed lifts in PAP towns are “regularly maintained and serviced” in accordance with Singapore and European standards.

“Safety of our residents is our priority,” said Dr Ho. “We will definitely work with the authorities to determine the cause of the incident and ensure everything possible is done to avoid a recurrence.”

Mr Zainal, who attended Mr Lim’s wake yesterday morning, also assured his family members of a thorough investigation. “We will support them in any way,” he said.

Additional reporting by Janice Heng

This article was first published on May 18, 2016.
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