Death of 3-year-old at cemetery "tragic confluence" of events: Coroner

Madam Jaiyesthri Ramasamy sits next to a shrine with a photo of her three-year-old son Kryshan Nirmal Kumar, who died at Choa Chu Kang Christian cemetery when the private bus which took him there for a relative’s burial ran over him during an accid
Madam Jaiyesthri Ramasamy sits next to a shrine with a photo of her three-year-old son Kryshan Nirmal Kumar, who died at Choa Chu Kang Christian cemetery when the private bus which took him there for a relative’s burial ran over him during an accident last December. Sleeping next to her is her other son Arshavin. -- ST PHOTO: SEAH KWANG PENG

SINGAPORE - The death of a three-year-old boy after he was run over by a private bus at a cemetery last December was a "tragic confluence of several events, all occurring at the same time", a coroner's court found on Monday.

The toddler, Kryshan Nirmal Kumar, was attending a funeral at a Christian cemetery in Choa Chu Kang with his mother and older brother.

The bus driver who had ferried them and other relatives there, Mr Ng Yam Bak, 48, was driving off when he ran over Kryshan.

At the coroner's inquiry last week, it emerged that as he was driving off, Mr Ng's attention was drawn to another boy who was shouting at him and running down the aisle inside his bus. The parents of the eight-year-old boy had left him sleeping in the bus.

Mr Ng also did not see anyone standing in front of his bus because Kryshan's mother, Madam Jaiyesthri Ramasamy, was squatting down to tie the shoelaces of her older child.

The coroner found that the accident was a result of several events: Kryshan and his family standing within the blind spot of the bus, Madam Jaiyesthri unaware that the bus was about to move off, and Mr Ng being "misdirected" by the cries and movement of the boy inside the bus.

The coroner also commented that there was a possible need to review the forward visibility of large passenger vehicles, in particular, the design and placement of blind spot mirrors.

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