When Madam Yep Lay Choo's Mercedes-Benz came out of the basement carpark at the back of Valley Point Shopping Centre, she found herself approaching a two-lane road where cars can turn either right or left.
Instead, Madam Yep's car went straight ahead, mounting a kerb and running through several bushes before crashing through the metal barriers and into Alexandra Canal.
In all, the car covered a distance of some 40m after exiting the carpark to plunge into the canal. The car had to come up a slope from the basement carpark. There were some objects that could have stood between the car and the canal, but Madam Yep did not hit any of them.
According to closed-circuit television footage from the shopping centre shown to her husband Robin Poon, the car narrowly missed a tree, a traffic safety mirror and a newly installed unfinished lamp post by the pavement. There were several gashes along the kerb where the car had driven over it. The bushes that the car drove through were damaged as well.
A temporary replacement metal barrier had been set up to fix the gap left by the accident when The Straits Times visited the site yesterday. The accident spot attracted a fair bit of attention from people living and working in the area. Several office workers were milling around the temporary barrier or looking at the damage to the kerb and bushes.
People working at the shopping centre said the back area where the basement carpark's entrance and exit are can be quite dark at night.
"It's not very well-lit," said Mr Chen Fu Kong, 25, who works at the supermarket there. "But there are more lamp posts being installed at the pavement outside."
Lester Hio
