S'pore man, 68, flung from seat after bus suddenly brakes, suffers head injury & fractured rib

A 68-year-old man was injured after the bus he was on came to a sudden brake and he was thrown from his seat.

According to a report by Shin Min Daily News, the incident took place on Sep. 1 along Woodlands Avenue 7 towards Woodlands Interchange, near the Seagate Singapore International Headquarters.

Lost consciousness for a moment

Speaking to the Chinese language newspaper, the man's son, surnamed Goh, said his father was travelling home on Bus service 858 when the incident happened.

"My father was sitting near the front of the bus when it suddenly braked, and he was thrown from his seat and lost consciousness for a while," he said.

According to Goh, his father was later woken by two passengers and the bus driver, who checked on him and helped clean his wounds.

He said his father suffered a head injury and significant swelling around his eye.

He was unable to walk after the incident and was carried to an ambulance on a stretcher before being taken to the hospital for treatment.

Photos provided by Goh showed his father was lying in a hospital bed wearing a neck brace, with visible bruising and swelling around his right eye.

In response to Mothership's queries, the Singapore Civil Defence Force said it received a call for assistance along Woodlands Avenue 7 and subsequently conveyed one person to Woodlands Hospital.

Goh said the family only became aware of the incident about an hour later, when his father called his sister from the hospital.

Hospitalised a second time

His father spent more than 20 hours in the emergency department before being discharged, Goh told Shin Min.

However, the older Goh was hospitalised again on Sep. 3 after experiencing blurred vision in his left eye.

Doctors later found that his father's cataract had become displaced following the impact, affecting his vision.

The elderly passenger also suffered chest pain caused by a fractured rib.

Expressed disappointment over the handling of the incident

Goh told Shin Min he was disappointed with Tower Transit’s handling of the incident.

He said he had tried to contact the bus operator’s customer service but did not receive a response, adding that the family did not receive any calls from the company to check on his father’s condition.

Goh eventually reached out to members of Tower Transit’s management through his personal contacts, after which a customer service manager called him at about 10:30pm on the night of the incident.

The manager told him that the driver involved was under investigation, but the family did not receive any further updates until the following morning, Goh said.

He added that the family was later told that Tower Transit would cover his father’s medical expenses through insurance.

The company also offered a gift basket and an EZ-Link card with a stored value of S$250, he said.

However, Goh said his father’s glasses, which were worth more than S$1,000, had been damaged in the incident.

A gold ornament he was wearing on his wrist, worth about S$600, was also dented.

Goh said the family was unsure how to seek compensation for the damaged items and had engaged a lawyer to explore their options.

Tower Transit: Bus captain made emergency stop

In response to queries from Mothership, Tower Transit confirmed the company was aware of the incident.

Preliminary investigations found that the bus captain had applied the emergency brakes after a motorcyclist in front of the bus stopped suddenly, it said.

The force of the braking had caused Goh's father to fall forward onto the rear-facing seats and sustain injuries.

According Tower Transit, the bus captain and other passengers attended to him while Tower Transit’s Bus Operations Control Centre activated an ambulance.

The company also addressed the family's concerns about the delay in receiving an update.

It said its customer experience team had called the passenger at about 2pm that day but was unable to get through.

Goh's son subsequently called the company to seek an update, but a response was only provided at about 10:30pm.

Tower Transit said it had apologised to the family for the delay and was working to ensure customer callbacks were handled more promptly in future.

The company also said it remained in contact with the family to check on the condition of Goh's father and would continue to provide full support, including assistance with necessary insurance claims.