Monkey hit by car & sent flying after its troop tries crossing busy road in Mandai

A troop of monkeys was seen trying to get across a busy road in Mandai.

At least one of the troop got hit by a car and was sent flying, according to footage circulated on Facebook.

Discussion on the video critiqued drivers who did not seem to slow down, while others said the drivers may have endangered other road users if they took sudden evasive action.

What the video showed

The video was filmed by someone at a bus stop across the road from Chye Heng Orchid Garden along Mandai Road.

It starts off with a single monkey running across the three-lane road, as other monkeys could be seen at the road divider.

The monkey made it across the first two lanes without incident, but gets hit by a white car on the third lane and is sent flying across the road.

Another monkey was seen narrowly escaping a collision with a black car on the third lane.

The monkey ran across the first two lanes quickly, and appears to stop to let the black car pass, before sprinting the rest of the way across the road.

It is unclear what happened to the monkey that was hit.

Should the cars have stopped to let the monkeys across?

In comments on the video, there was discussion on whether the drivers should have slowed down or stopped for the monkeys to cross.

Some commenters critiqued the drivers who did not seem to slow down.

But others said the drivers may have endangered other road users if they took evasive action, such as braking suddenly.

Commenters also highlighted the potential danger caused by animals crossing the road, especially if drivers were distracted, or if the animals were in the drivers' blind spots.

Some also called for more signage to be put up warning road users that there might be monkeys crossing.

What can be done to help animals cross roads?

In the Mandai area, a special bridge over Mandai Lake Road has been constructed to connect two forest patches of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve (CCNR) and provide safe passage for wildlife.

The bridge was launched in December 2019.

Other measures to protect wildlife — and primates especially — include rope bridges that facilitate crossings.

One example of this is the rope bridges along Old Upper Thomson Road, which separates the Thomson Nature Park from the CCNR.

The rope bridges, installed by the National Parks Board, have facilitated the safe movement of the rare Raffles’ banded langur.

In 2018, Mandai Park Development (MPD), the company which was developing the Mandai area, responded to claims that the development work was causing roadkills in the area.

A spokesperson for MPD said then that it was "misleading" to attribute all roadkills in the Mandai vicinity to the Mandai project, saying that "roadkill incidents have happened before".

He added that MPD has implemented measures to reduce the likelihood of roadkill incidents, such as installing wildlife crossing signs and speed bumps along Mandai Road, telling major transport companies to slow down along Mandai Road, and providing crossing aids for tree-dwelling animals.

Top photo via Singapore roads accident.com on Facebook