SMRT bus knocks down boy, 9, at Woodlands junction
A schoolboy sustained an ankle fracture after being hit by an SMRT bus in Woodlands on Monday afternoon.
The incident comes four days after an SBS bus hit and killed a woman crossing the road at the junction of Sengkang East Way and Compassvale Road.
This time, SMRT bus service 912 was turning left at the junction of Woodlands Avenue 6 and Woodlands Drive 53 when it knocked the 9-year-old boy down.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said they received a call at 2:53pm informing them of an accident and they then dispatched assistance to the scene.
The boy sustained a fracture on his right ankle and was conscious when he was sent to the KK Hospital at 3:09pm, said an SCDF spokesperson.
An SMRT spokesperson told Yahoo! Singapore that its bus command centre was notified of the accident at 3:00pm and immediately activated an ambulance.
There were about 28 passengers on board the bus during the time of incident and no passenger was injured.
“The Service Leader has been suspended from duty,” said SMRT, who said it will be assisting the family in every way they can.
The issue of driver training was raised by Members of Parliament for Aljunied and Chua Chu Kang, Low Thia Kiang and Zaqy Mohamad respectively during parliament on Monday afternoon.
This after last Tuesday's fatal crash when an SBS Transit bus driven by a Chinese national ran over an elderly woman in Sengkang.
Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew replied that regardless of the nationality of the bus driver, he or she would have to be adequately trained and qualified.
"Part of the training programme is to make sure that we infuse them with the responsibility that they carry when they drive a vehicle like a bus and to make sure that they pay stringent attention to road conditions," said Lui.
He added that the foreign worker intake for the entire workforce of the two public transport operators, SMRT and SBS, was capped at 10 per cent.
On bus drivers specifically, that number was significantly higher.
61 per cent are Singaporeans or permanent residents while 26 per cent are Malaysians.
Another 12 to 13 per cent are Chinese nationals.
