Quite a while back, MRT Stations in Singapore installed platform screen doors on their platforms.

This was to enforce safety, following multiple incidents of people falling into the train tracks, whether accidentally or intentionally.

A standard platform barrier in MRT stations.

However, LRT stations have no such luxury.

A standard LRT platform, where there are safety barriers, but no screen doors.

You might be wondering why I’m making such a comparison, but I’m sure you have an inkling after reading the title of this article.

Had platform screen doors been installed for LRT stations, a life might have been saved

On March 24, at around 12.40am, 43-year-old Ang Boon Tong fell off the platform at Fajar LRT Station.

It was reported that he had been drinking heavily at his wife’s workplace, a food court below Fajar LRT station.

He was conscious when he fell onto the tracks but allegedly not sober enough to climb back up to safety. Instead, he lay still for three minutes, before sitting up and rolling to his left.

At 12.48am, a train arrived at the station and hit him. The sole passenger on the train, an SMRT staff member, heard the impact but dismissed it.

Another train arrived at the station 10 minutes later. This time, a train service controller who was on the platform spotted the carriage ‘jerking upwards’.

He then saw Mr Ang’s body on the track and notified the operation control centre straightaway.

The man had blood alcohol level three times the legal limit for drivers

The police were alerted to the incident at 1 am. A paramedic declared him dead at 2.20am. The cause of death? “Multiple injuries”.

A toxicological analysis revealed that he had 232 milligrams of alcohol in 100ml of blood, almost tripling the driving limit of motorists at only 80 mg.

Mr Ang leaves behind a wife and three children between the ages of 9 and 17.

When interviewed by reporters, his wife, Mdm Lee Yoon Cheng said that now, she is on her own and will raise their children by herself.

Brave words from a woman whose husband’s been taken away from her in such a cruel way. You have my utmost respect, Mdm Lee.

Could it have been prevented?

There are actually CCTV cameras that managed to capture his fall into the train tracks.

However, the lone service controller, who was checking 22 monitors at the operation control centre at another location – Ten Mile Junction – did not spot it.

Her attention had been distracted by the other monitors as the stations along the line were closing off operations for the day.

There are no systems for someone falling into the tracks, and there were no plans to implement any

According to Channelnewsasia, Chia Chun Wah, Senior VP for Circle Line and Bukit Panjang said that trains are not equipped with obstacle detection systems nor is there a system in place to detect objects falling onto the tracks.

He added that there were no plans (at that time) to install such a system. Passengers who fell onto the tracks have to make their way to the safe location between the two tracks, although he mentioned that these areas were not marked out or publicised to the public.

Okay, this might make sense if they’re afraid of young daredevils who’d want to test out the “safe zones”.

Another way for passengers who fell onto the tracks is to shout for help and hope someone presses the emergency stop button on the platform but he admitted that the public wouldn’t know what pressing the button would’ve done.

There was also no signages directing the person on the train tracks to the flight of stairs at the end of the platform as well.

LTA has been trialling a new video analytics system which will detect foreign objects on the train tracks. However, it was unclear if even after detection, the alarm can be sounded at the Operations Control Centre (OCC) in time.

After investigations, the case was ruled as “a truly tragic misadventure”.

What do you think?

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Read about other happenings in Singapore here:

• 10 Facts about Century Square’s Upcoming S$60m Upgrade That Even Jurong-ers Should Know
• Another Robbery, This Time in Bukit Batok with a 25-cm Knife

Feature Image: channelnewsasia.com

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com