Everything About The Tree That Fell At Orchard Road & Almost Killed A Family on 22 Feb

It’s a good day, sunny and not rainy, but still not too hot because there’s a strong breeze.

You’ve just ended a shopping spree with your family at Plaza Singapura and you’re about to drive to your next location when all of a sudden, you hear a loud “bang” on the roof of your car and something pierces through your windscreen and front window.

You look closer and that’s when you realise that a tree had just fallen onto your car, and thankfully, you’re still alive.

While that may sound like something that happened in a movie, it actually happened to this family in Singapore.

Tree Falls On Family’s Car

On 22 February, the family of three were travelling on the second lane towards Cavenagh Road after having left Plaza Singapura at around 5.45pm when a raintree suddenly falls onto their car, denting their roof and damaging the windscreen and left front window of their white Audi.

He noted that they were the only unlucky ones who got their car smashed by the tree, but perhaps they could be counted as lucky since they got off without losing their lives.

According to an interview done with Chinese language newspaper, Shin Min Daily News, the driver who wants to remain anonymous said, “My car was hit by a branch. If I had been driving on the left-most lane, we could have been crushed by the tree trunk.”

He also said, “We were dumbfounded, and even till now we are still jittery over the close shave.”

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He looked at his wife right who was in the front passenger seat right after the incident and realised that she had cuts because of the branch that smashed through her window. Their 12-year-old son who was sitting at the back was covered in shattered glass.

The man further commented, “He later said that he felt pain at the back of his neck, so we took him to Gleneagles Hospital for a check-up.”

“It Was Windy”

52-year-old eyewitness Mr Liu said that even though it was not raining on that day, it was rather windy.

The wind must have been really, really strong to have made such a huge tree fall. 

But seriously speaking, it has been extremely windy these few days. Once, when I was out buying lunch with my thin colleague, he was blown to Bali and is still on his way back to Singapore.

Mr Liu added, “The surrounding trees did not collapse. It could be that the roots of the fallen tree had been loosened in the soil.”

A Huge Disruption

According to Shin Min Daily News, the tree trunk was about a metre thick and the accident caused a two-hour-long traffic jam as workers took about three hours to clear all the debris and remove the tree.

SBS Transit also announced on their Facebook page that bus services 7, 14, 16, 65, 111, 124, 162/162M, 174, and 175 were all delayed along Penang Road towards Somerset Road. They later updated their post that the affected services have resumed normal operations at 7.10pm.

Not The First Time

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time such an incident has occurred around the Orchard area.

Back in November last year, 71-year-old Arvind Ramanlal was stuck in his car for 10 minutes after a tree fell across his car at Scotts Road.

It took about 15 people including staff from the Grand Hyatt Singapore (yes, that Grand Hyatt Singapore) to safely extricate him out of his car.

It is scary to think that these kinds of things can happen any day, so please be careful, everyone. And also, treasure the ones you love because anything can happen.