It's usually not a good idea to alight from a vehicle with oncoming traffic close by.

But a 71-year-old private hire vehicle driver, surnamed Cheong, saw his passenger do so on Sep. 24.

Into Traffic

According to Cheong's daughter, who wrote in to Mothership, her father was delivering a passenger to a location along Dunearn Road.

His car had stopped and was waiting to turn into a lane along Dunearn Road, when his passenger decided to open the car door directly into traffic.

See what happened

On a video shared by SG Road Vigilante, Cheong stopped his car, a white Toyota Prius, close to the curb.

But he was unable to move forward because there was another vehicle in his way.

Instead, he stuck close to the edge of the road with his left turn indicator on, showing that he intended to turn in when he could, and give cars behind him as much space to pass on his right as possible.

For an unknown reason however, his passenger, choosing not to wait, decided to exit immediately.

But instead of getting out on the left side, the passenger opened the right side car door, directly into the traffic coming past him on Dunearn Road.

This was just as a red Criterion hatchback was trying to navigate past the Prius.

Unfortunately, the car door was struck by the Citroen, resulting in the loss of its wing mirror.

Supposedly walked away

According to Cheong's daughter, the passenger supposedly opened the door without any warning.

Rather than trying to take any responsibility for the incident, the passenger instead walked away without leaving any details, she further claimed.

Describing her father as being in a "state of shock" at the time, he thus failed to call the police right away.

He is currently trying to gather enough details to either contact the passenger or make a police report.

Grab's response

According to Cheong's daughter, all he had was the name of the passenger but lacked any other contact details, which they claimed Grab would not reveal to Cheong for privacy reasons.

However, both driver and daughter hope that the passenger will come forward and bear the cost of the repairs.

Mothership reached out to Grab, and a spokesperson said:

"We are aware of the incident, and are supporting the driver-partner with the relevant insurance claims. We have also taken the necessary action against the passenger for causing damage to the driver-partner’s vehicle, and putting other road users at risk.

We would like to remind passengers to take extra caution and to check for oncoming traffic before alighting a ride, so as to avoid accidents."

Cheong's daughter was able to confirm that Grab was in contact with him regarding matters such as loss of income and medical expenses.

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Top image via SG Road Vigilante/YouTube

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