Lorry Driver in Video Gave His Side of the Story: A Taxi was Involved as Well

2018-12-26 , 5:20 pm

When a video has clocked over 2 million views in Singapore, you can bet that everyone’s dying to know more about the backgrounds of the people involved.

And no one does it better than Lianhe Wanbao.

Last year, the Chinese daily was the first to find the identities of the couple who bullied a couple in a Toa Payoh hawker centre, so they’re the real deal when it comes to CSI-ing.

Once again, the trusty Lianhe Wanbao managed to speak to the lorry driver and it turns out that a taxi might be involved in the whole incident as well.

Lianhe Wanbao’s CSI

The Chinese daily reached out to both the cyclist and the lorry driver, and while the cyclist had not responded (well, what a surprise), the lorry driver decided to give his side of the story.

The 57-year-old, Mr Zhang Shengzhong, runs a fish farm, and since it’s a Saturday, he was apparently in a temple in Toa Payoh before going to Changi.

Incidentally, on Pasir Ris Dr 3, he saw the two cyclists. He said, “One of them was riding in the middle of the road so I honked at him once, asking him to give way…However, he did not respond and only turned back to look at me when stopping at a traffic light.”

Well, that was what we saw in the video.

When the traffic light turned green, the driver honked again. That was when the cyclist decided to move a little to the left—but not completely.

With a little more space, Mr Zhang tried to squeeze through the lane to overtake the cyclists.

But if you’d have noticed, there’s a red taxi on his right.

Taxi Honked + Bang

During this point, Mr Zhang’s lorry was very close to the taxi and the cyclist.

The taxi then honked (which we can’t hear from the video because there’s no sound) and there was a “bang” (presumably from the water bottle thrown or his side mirror).

Mr Zhang then immediately swerved to his left, knocking the cyclist off the road.

Aftermath of Incident

When Mr Zhang realized that he had hit the cyclist instead of the taxi, he saw that his left side mirror was lying on the ground.

The cyclist seemed completely fine as he was mainly angered by the damage to his bicycle instead of any injury.

Mr Zhang claimed, “When the cyclist saw me, he was very angry and, in fluent English, said that his bicycle was damaged. I did not really understand as my English is not very good.”

Mr Zhang then did a Stomp as he fished out his handphone to film a video as “evidence” (maybe to show that the cyclist was fine or to confirm that he won’t make an insurance claim), and as we all know, the cyclist snatched the handphone from Mr Zhang.

Suddenly, The Tone Changed

According to Mr Zhang, the cyclist then told him not to film, and even tapped on his shoulder in a friendly manner.

When Mr Zhang wanted to exchange particulars by offering his IC, the cyclist claimed that he did not have his with him.

After that, they left the scene. Mr Zhang then installed a new side mirror for $15, and had no idea that the entire incident had blown up online.

Water Bottle or Side Mirror?

One of the debates that people is having is this: did the cyclist hit the side mirror, or did he throw his water bottle?

There have been conflicting reports, but now, at least we know the side mirror is damaged.

But honestly, we should be debating about another thing.

Change Coming?

Winston Churchill once said, “Never waste a good crisis,” but that was way back when the Internet didn’t even exist then. Nowadays, it’s “Never waste a good viral video.”

After all, earlier this year, after a series of accidents that were attributed to the discretionary right turn, LTA decided to install red-amber-green arrows in most traffic lights in Singapore.

People are usually less resistant to changes if a big event justified it (e.g. this viral video).

So, could this be a start of a stricter rules for cyclists? Like, finally?