1 dead, 4 hurt in crash at Tampines junction

A 59-year-old man died after an accident late on Thursday night at the junction of Tampines Avenue 1 and Tampines Avenue 10.

Four other people were injured in the accident.

Footage circulating online shows what appears to be a red Mercedes crashing through a railing at a traffic light. The accident involved four cars, a taxi and a motorcycle.

Police said they were alerted to the incident at about 11.10pm.

The 59-year-old male driver was in one of the vehicles hit by the Mercedes. He was unconscious when taken to hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

Four other men, aged between 22 and 38, were conscious when taken to Changi General Hospital.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it used hydraulic equipment to rescue a person trapped in the driver's seat of a car.

A 33-year-old male driver has been arrested for dangerous driving causing death, said the police.

The Straits Times understands that the driver had been drinking.

The police are investigating the accident.

Mr Noraschid Ghani, who has been living in Tampines Avenue 1 for the past 11 years, said: "This area is notorious for night racing."

The 47-year-old said that he wrote to the authorities regarding the issue of speeding cars after reading about the accident on Facebook.

There were 733 cases of speeding between January and September islandwide, a rise from 549 in the same period last year.

Speeding was flagged as the leading cause behind a rise in the number of accidents with injuries or deaths from June to September.

Drink driving was among other causes behind the rise.

More than 1,000 people were caught for drink driving in the first nine months of this year.

The Anti-Drink Drive Campaign 2021 was launched on Dec 9 as a reminder to motorists not to drink and drive, especially during the festive period.

A driver who drives under the influence of alcohol - even when no accident is involved - can be fined up to $10,000, or sentenced to up to a year in jail, or both, and be disqualified from driving for two years for a first offence.

For dangerous driving causing death, first-time offenders face up to eight years in jail, with a minimum mandatory sentence of two years, and could be disqualified from driving for at least 10 years.

Second-time offenders face a minimum mandatory jail term of four years, with up to 15 years' imprisonment.