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In the aftermath of the two SMRT employees’ deaths, some of their colleagues are upset by what they see as an apparent disregard for workers’ safety over the need to assuage commuters’ grouses about train breakdowns. Others said they were kept in the dark about the tragedy on Tuesday (March 22) even as they had to continue performing their duties.

Speaking to TODAY on the condition of anonymity, an SMRT engineer said: “We are very angry and sad that such a thing has happened. It was an accident that could have been avoided. Safety should always come first and not be compromised, even when the management wants problems to be fixed fast to avoid delays to the train service.”

While “technicians on the ground are essential for the reliability of operations”, the engineer said, he was “devastated” when he heard the news that they were killed on the tracks.

“When the machines on the track are malfunctioning, it is sometimes necessary that we have to send people down to fix them. But safety should never be compromised in the process,” he stressed.

Another SMRT employee, who declined to be named, said that ground crew personnel were not given much information after the accident. He himself was not told about what was happening at the accident scene, or about when the station may be re-opened: “(At that time), people were asking how long the delay would last, and I said, ‘I’m not sure’.”

He recalled that the signal light “turned to red” at around 11.20am at the station, “indicating that something had happened”. “After that, my officer gave me instructions saying that people from the platform were coming down. He said, ‘Just open the gates and let the people go out; (to) just clear the crowd’.”

Another SMRT ground staff member said she heard that the maintenance workers were from another station and were at Pasir Ris to check on the tracks, and some of the ground crew had to leave with the police for investigations.

Train services between Pasir Ris and Tanah Merah stations were suspended for about three hours on Tuesday afternoon when two maintenance workers were hit by an oncoming train about 150m from the train platform.

Singaporeans Nasrulhudin Najumudin, 26, and Muhammad Asyraf Ahmad Buhari, 24, were trainees who had just joined SMRT in January. The two were part of a 15-member technical team, including a supervisor, who went on the tracks to check on a reported alarm from a condition monitoring device for signalling equipment.

When TODAY arrived at the scene around 12.30pm, the gates to the station were closed, and SMRT officials were handing out information flyers and diverting commuters to Pasir Ris bus interchange for free bus services.

Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) personnel and family members of the deceased entered and exited the train station even as it was off-limits to the public at that point, while members of the press and some bystanders lingered at the station entrance.

A 55-year-old Pasir Ris resident, who asked to be identified only as Mr Yong, said he was walking to the MRT station at around noon when he saw SCDF personnel guiding passengers — about 20 — from the stalled train to the station.

A homemaker in her 50s, who wanted to be known only as Madam Foo, said she had gone to the upper floors of a nearby apartment block to find out “why the train is just (stuck) on the tracks like that”. “I saw a body on the track. It was already wrapped up. I got a shock, of course,” she said.

One commuter, technician Timothy Hoong, 53, told TODAY that such an incident “shouldn’t have happened in the first place”.

“When the train is operational, nobody should be on the tracks for safety reasons … It’s all right to delay the train service than to just go ahead with the maintenance (and resulting) in somebody getting killed.”

Mr Hoong believes the accident may have been prevented if “proper communication” took place.

Source: www.todayonline.com