A 39-year-old driver died after being ran over by his own prime mover in the Yishun area on Wednesday morning. The bizarre accident happened near Yishun Industrial Street 1.
According to a Facebook group Traffics accident.SG, the deceased is Shanmugam Jothi and died on the spot after being run over by the prime mover he had just parked near Block 15, Yishun Industrial Street. It is suspected that he was returning to the heavy vehicle after realising he had forgotten to engage the brakes when the vehicle moved forward and crushed him.
The police said they were notified about the accident at 8:09 a.m. and that they found the 39-year-old driver dead at the scene. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics from Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). Police are still investigating the incident.
Jothi Shanmugam is an Indian national who worked at a logistics company here for the past seven years. According to the manager of the company who spoke to the media, Jothi was picking up cargo at the location that morning. He added that the company is in the midst of contacting and providing assistance to the deceased’s family in India.
In December 2016, another prime mover driver Guo Jiasheng was killed in a similar accident at 15 Pandan Crescent. A Coroner’s Inquiry held in 2017 found that the Chinese national had failed to engage the handbrakes when he alighted was killed when the vehicle moved forward and crushed him against a wall.
In February this year, the Singapore Police Force said that more people died on Singapore’s roads last year as the number of traffic accidents rose along with the resumption of more activities.
A total of 107 people died in traffic accidents last year, up 28.9 per cent from 83 people in 2020. The number of fatal accidents increased by 25 per cent to 100 cases in 2021 from 80 cases in 2020.
Despite the increase, the number of fatal accidents and fatalities were still lower compared to the pre-pandemic period, said SPF in its annual road traffic situation report for 2021. The road traffic fatality rate per 100,000 population increased to 1.96 in 2021 from 1.46 in 2020.