Barrier put up on road divider in Telok Blangah Road after cyclist fell and suffered injuries
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Mr Patrick Lee (in black shirt) and a worker placing safety hazard tape at the crash site, while Mr Terence Lee takes a wefie.
PHOTO: TERENCE LEE
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SINGAPORE - Mr Patrick Lee cycles to work regularly. The 55-year-old also explores longer cycling routes from time to time.
On the night of April 19, when he and his friend were cycling from Sentosa towards Labrador Park, he fell off his bike due to a sudden drop in elevation on the road divider they were travelling on.
The concrete divider, located between Telok Blangah Road and West Coast Highway, was brightly lit, but they could not see the edge drop from their vantage point.
In an interview with The Straits Times, Mr Lee said he saw “a flat road ahead” so he did not slow down. The polytechnic instructor suffered injuries to his right shoulder and right knee from the fall.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Friday clarified that the road divider was meant for maintenance access to the viaduct structure, and not for use by cyclists and pedestrians.
The agency responded swiftly after Mr Lee’s former student, Mr Terence Lee, 33, talked about the incident on Thursday in a post on his Facebook page Bike Guru, which has 10,000 followers.
The younger Lee, a content creator, said some of his followers told him they had “crashed at the same place” as well.
To prevent others from suffering the same fate, Mr Patrick Lee and Mr Terence Lee both returned to the site at midnight on Thursday, intending to mark out the edge drop with hazard tape. To their surprise, some workers from an LTA contractor beat them to it.
“My friend (Mr Patrick Lee) and I went over to the crash site at 12am this morning with hazard sticker and realised the workers have put up a permanent barrier to the entrance of the footpath (road divider) leading to the crash site,” Mr Terence Lee said in a Facebook post on Friday morning.
In a comment left on Bike Guru’s post, the LTA said: “We have put up barriers to make it clear that the maintenance access to the viaduct structure is not meant for cyclists and pedestrians.
“Those who wish to access the MRT should use the pedestrian overhead bridge instead.”
Mr Patrick Lee told ST: “We were surprised how fast they (LTA) rectified the problem.”
Mr Terence Lee added that the site in question is the most vulnerable spot he has seen.
“I encourage the public to post photos of vulnerable spots while commuting on the footpaths, park connector networks and roads,” he said.
“This will help create awareness and improve the safety of the public.”
