Nearly 3.5K S’poreans Petitioning For Traffic Police To Return Lorry To Driver

Thought we were done with this adventure?

Far from it.

The case continues and the entire local netizen population remains very invested, it seems. But it’s not just by-standing now, people are stepping in to mete out justice.

If you’ve somehow stumbled on this article with no knowledge of the whole story, here’s a quick summary.

A cyclist, Eric Cheung Hoyu, was riding in the middle of the lane in front of a lorry, whose driver Teo Seng Tiong sounded the horn twice.

The cyclist continued to obstruct the lorry for awhile, before making moving to the left of the lane. As he was doing that, he reached to the back and damaged the side mirror of the lorry, either directly or by throwing a water bottle at it.

To avoid a taxi on his right, the driver then served left and hit the cyclist, knocking him onto the grass next to the road.

Teo was charged with rash driving and not making a report within 24 hours of a car accident while Cheung was charged with rash riding and mischief.

The truck driver also had his lorry impounded in December 2018. And this happens to be the most important line of recap for this article.

The update

Unless you live in a cave, you’d know that local netizens have largely sided with the lorry driver.

Now they’re banding together to show their indignation at the outcome of this incident with concrete action through a Change.org petition.

Ah, at least this petition kind of makes sense.

The petition, addressed to the Singapore Traffic Police, was started on 17 March by “Only a Poor lorry driver” (really, that’s the person’s name).

He She It appeals to the Traffic Police to return Teo’s lorry for his livelihood, and as I’m writing this, nearly 3,500 people have shown their support in just 5 days.

Now, Teo was someone who didn’t even realised how much attention his little accident got until his neighbour greeted him one evening with a cheerful “You’re famous!”.

And now this?

According to The Straits Times , Teo does not know who the petitioner is, but is grateful to him and all who signed the petition anyway.

In fact, I bet my boss’ car that he didn’t even know petitions can be done online. #justsaying

A tight financial situation

Teo then shared problems he is facing without his lorry, saying “I have not had any income since my lorry was impounded. I need it to deliver goods. Without my lorry, I can’t work and I have no income. Yet I need to continue to service the installment loan for my lorry, which is about S$800 a month.”

He is also in a hurry to get it back because of its less than optimal state, saying that he is “worried that my lorry’s engine and battery will break down when I eventually get it back, since it has not been used for three months.”

Right now, his only source of income is the few hundred bucks he gets monthly from people visiting his fish farm in Pulau Ubin.

A spokesperson from the Traffic Police has since reported that they are processing the appeal. This is the statement released:

“The Traffic Police have received an appeal from the owner of the lorry for his vehicle to be returned.

“The lorry was impounded for further investigations and the owner is not required to pay for any storage fees.

“An order from the court is required for the vehicle to be returned to the owner and TP is currently processing the appeal.”

Who knew something good could come out of how viral this situation is?

Hopefully with the masses of support from the Singaporeans who have faithfully followed this case, things will start looking up for our beloved lorry driver.