Taxi driver Jin Lian Cheng was driving on the fast lane of the AYE early yesterday morning when he had the shock of his life.
He saw the bright lights of another car as it sped straight at him.
He did not have any time to react and crashed into it.
”There was no way I could have avoided it,” Mr Jin, 54, told Lianhe Wanbao from his hospital bed.
”I don’t know why the red car suddenly came from the opposite direction.”
The accident at about 6am near the south Buona Vista exit of AYE going towards Changi Airport, caused an eight-vehicle pile-up involving a motorcycle, lorry, two cars and four taxis.
There was a two-hour traffic jam afterwards.
Mr Jin had just picked up his first passenger at 5.30am and was taking the AYE for his regular drop-off at the airport when the accident happened in light traffic.
The cabby, his passenger, who is in his 30s, and the driver of the car, 63, were among the people taken to the National University Hospital (NUH) for treatment.
Mr Jin said he turned around after the accident and saw that his passenger’s head was bleeding. The cabby narrowly missed being blinded in the left eye after shards of glass from the windscreen hit his face.
He received eight stitches at the corner of his eye, from a cut 2cm away from his eyeball.
He also tore his left knee ligament and got his right lung punctured.
He is still undergoing scans for his lungs to further diagnose the problem.
The driver of the red Honda Airwave was sent for surgery at the hospital after suffering undisclosed injuries. His family told Lianhe Wanbao that he should have been driving to Jurong to start work and they had no idea why he was driving against traffic.
Source: www.tnp.sg
