The death of a 44-year-old Filipino woman who was knocked down by a minibus in Novena, Singapore, in April was regarded as a tragedy by the Coroner’s Court on Wednesday.
At 10:20am on April 16, Emely Tumaneng Salazar, a domestic worker, was crossing Balestier Road by passing in between some stationary vehicles, The Straits Times reported.
A minibus that had departed from Zhongshan Mall was traveling in the leftmost lane toward Lavender Street. Seeing the road ahead congested, the driver, Mahalingam Pichay, switched to the rightmost lane to make his way to his next pick-up point.
The victim was crossing the road from left to right, but her route was temporarily blocked by a white van stationed in the center lane. As a result, Pichay failed to brake in time when Salazar suddenly appeared in front of the minibus just one car-length away.
Salazar was hit by the minibus and flung forward on to the road, suffering severe injuries. She was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where she was pronounced dead four and a half hours later at around 2:30pm.
State Coroner Marvin Bay said the incident was a “most unfortunate traffic misadventure”.
So sad
My condolence to d deceased. Lesson to learn. Cross as designated. Dun try crossing between stationary vehicles esp big trucks infront of some smaller vehicles.