Man crosses street in Bugis without checking, gets startled when honked at, flips bird at driver

How defensive should pedestrians and motorists be while on the road?

Well, if neither party wants to end up bearing the brunt of injuries and damages, the answer is, "Very".

But it was apparently not the case when a pedestrian and driver crossed paths recently in Bugis along Fraser Street on Jan. 13 at about 9:30am.

As seen in a video of their brief encounter, which was put up on the SG Road Vigilante Facebook page, a pedestrian apparently did not keep a lookout for oncoming vehicles before crossing the street, and the driver who approached appeared to not want to give way.

The outcome?

The driver honked at the pedestrian, who got startled, and proceeded to gesticulate, cuss, and point the middle finger as the driver continued along their merry way.

Pedestrian not alert?

According to the footage, it appeared to have been raining that morning as the other people on the street were holding umbrellas and the ground was wet.

The caption of the video read: "Pedestrian crossing street day dreaming. Gave a light tap of the horn to alert him."

The pedestrian was already more than halfway across the two-lane street when he had to back-pedal as he noticed the vehicle not slowing or stopping for him.

He did not appear to have been looking out for oncoming traffic at the time.

Responses

The video was watched more than 91,000 times in less than two days.

Opinions were divided, with just as many commenters calling out the pedestrian as the driver.

Based on the split reactions, it appeared that both the pedestrian and driver were at fault.

Those who called out the pedestrian said he should have been more alert and not take it for granted that vehicles will automatically give way to him.

This was so as in the event of an accident, the pedestrian would bear the brunt of the collision.

Others who called out the driver blamed him for not being gracious on the road.

They argued that slowing down or stopping for a split second would not make a material difference to the travelling time and would prevent accidents that can implicate and inconvenience the motorist even more, if insurance and police reports get filed.

According to the Road Traffic Act, pedestrians not crossing at pedestrian crossings are to yield to traffic.

Top photos via SG Road Vigilante