$8k fine for driver who tampered with lorry’s height warning system, hitting flyover

SINGAPORE – A lorry driver who drove with an improperly stowed crane arm struck the underside of Toa Payoh North Flyover while driving.

He had earlier tampered with the vehicle’s height audio warning system (HWS), preventing it from working properly.

On Dec 2, the driver, Kurusamy Nagarajan, 42, an Indian national, was fined $8,000 after he pleaded guilty to one count each of tampering with the HWS and causing a vehicle to hit a structure.

He was also prohibited from driving any motor vehicles in Singapore for a period of six months from Dec 2.

The accident happened on June 27.

The Land Transport Authority’s prosecutor Chan Arne told the court that landscaping firm TTK Services was the vehicle’s registered owner from March 9, 2023.

Kurusamy, who was driving a lorry that was equipped with a mechanical crane arm, had disconnected a wire connected to the vehicle’s HWS, preventing the device from working properly.

Court documents stated that the HWS would produce a continuous audio warning when the vehicle’s lorry crane was not properly stowed.

Kurusamy, who started working as a driver for the company in 2016, had been assigned to the vehicle, which passed an inspection on March 7, 2025, with its HWS in a good working condition.

On June 27, TTK Services told Kurusamy to drive the vehicle to Lorong 8 Toa Payoh and load pruned tree branches onto its load deck.

The prosecutor said that the lorry crane could not be properly stowed as there were many tree branches loaded onto the vehicle. As a result, the HWS produced a continuous audio warning.

Instead of addressing the issue, Kurusamy disconnected a wire fitted to the device’s buzzer compartment to stop the sound.

The improperly stowed lorry crane later struck the underside of Toa Payoh North Flyover shortly after 5pm that day.