Fatal accident causes huge jam on SLE

A fatal accident involving a motorcyclist and a dump truck caused a massive rush-hour jam on the Seletar Expressway (SLE) yesterday morning.

Traffic along two lanes of the expressway had to be diverted as police put up a blue tent over the body of the victim, a Malay man in his 40s. Paramedics pronounced the motorcyclist dead at the crash scene, which was before the expressway's Lentor exit.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it got a call about the accident at 7.07am, and motorists interviewed said the jam was not cleared until about 9 am. At its worst, vehicles were backed up all the way down Tampines Expressway until its Sengkang exit.

A 31-year-old motorist, who wanted to be identified only as Mr Chew, said he saw a mangled red-triangle sign about 10m from the rear of the lorry. The sign is used by drivers to indicate that their vehicles have broken down.