“I thought I was going to die,” a 19-year-old student said as he recounted plunging over two metres into a large drain with his bicycle during the rain.
With bruises and cuts all over his limbs, he managed to climb out of the drain. He could only watch helplessly as his bicycle was carried away by the rushing water.
A day later, a man ended up fishing the bicycle out of the Hillview drain hundreds of metres away.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
The 19-year-old student, who wished to remain anonymous, told MS News that he was doing Grab food deliveries on Sunday (25 Oct) night.
At 8.50pm, he received a new order and cycled through the rain on his bicycle to pick up the order.
As the heavy rain battered against his spectacles, he decided to take them off.
He explained that he passed by The Lanai condominiums in Hillview and assumed that the footpath kept going straight.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
With the combination of the area being dark, the heavy rain, and his lack of glasses, the student was surprised to see a green railing suddenly come into view dead ahead.
Unable to stop in time, he crashed into the fence, with the front tyre leaving an imprint in a railing. The student abruptly found himself hurtling through the air.
“I did like a front flip into the drain and my bike fell in with me,” he told MS News.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
The student plunged into a drain estimated at over 2.2 metres deep.
“So, I was falling, I thought I was going to die as I thought it was the big canal,” he said. Luckily, it wasn’t as deep as he expected.
When he regained his senses, he found himself drifting down the storm drain. The water level was at his knees when he stood up.
He had sustained numerous cuts and bruises across his hands, elbows, knees, and feet.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
The student found his bike and tried to grab his phone in a phone holder, only to find that it had been washed away.
His bicycle itself was in bad shape, with punctured tyres plus a damaged handlebar and chain, but he had bigger things to worry about at the moment.
The current was strong enough to make me struggle to stand and can easily wash away my 8kg bike if I didn’t hold it.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
He allegedly shouted for help for 20 minutes, but as the area was “quite remote”, nobody heard him through the heavy downpour.
Realising no one was coming and without a phone to call for help, the student took his bicycle and went upstream to the highest point.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
He locked his bicycle and hooked the frame onto pipes in the drain to prevent it from being swept away.
It unfortunately lasted only 30 seconds before the current washed it off at high speeds.
The student initially wanted to give chase but gave up and prioritised escaping.
He jumped, grabbed onto the ledge, and managed to “easily” pull himself up and out, crediting it to frequenting the gym.
The student said he tried to wave down eight cars, none of which stopped.
Eventually, he made his way to a bus stop and ran into a stranger, who lent him a phone to contact his father.
He later informed PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency about the matter.
On 27 Oct, PUB staff helped him search the drain, but failed to find his bicycle.
He told MS News that he had bought his Liberty bicycle just two months ago for S$570 and considered it his “dream bike”.
However, with the strong currents, he had no clue where it could have ended up.
As it turned out, his bicycle was swept some 550 metres down the drain, winding up near the junction of Hillview Avenue and Bukit Batok East Avenue 2.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
40-year-old golf shop owner Christopher Koh recounted to MS News that at around 9.30pm on 26 Oct, his neighbour informed him that a bicycle was in the nearby drain.
Sure enough, Mr Koh found the bike in the middle of the wide storm drain, dripping wet and tangled in all kinds of vegetation.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
He searched the area for any potential injured riders who may have fallen in, but found nobody.
Mr Koh discussed what to do with his neighbour. The weather forecast predicted heavy rain the next day, and he worried that the deluge would wash the bicycle away.
“Felt like it was my duty to retrieve the bike as I am able to and equipped to repair the bike,” he said to MS News.
Mr Koh’s neighbour retrieved some rock climbing rope and the two performed an improvised ‘fishing’ session.
We made a loop lasso with the rope and took approximately 20 attempts to snag the bike.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
After 20 minutes of trying, they fished the bicycle out of the drain at 10.25pm. Mr Koh moved it into his workshop and washed it.
On the morning of 27 Oct, Mr Koh posted about the bicycle on the ‘SG PCN Cyclist’ Facebook group, trying to find the owner.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
He told MS News that he initially ruled out someone crashing and falling into the drain as unlikely due to the cable lock around the rear wheel.
The next morning (28 Oct), the 19-year-old student was notified of the post by a PUB contact. To his joy, it was indeed his lost bicycle.
He left a comment detailing his shocking story, together with a past photo of the bicycle.
At 12.45am on 29 Oct, the student headed over to Mr Koh’s workshop to collect the bike.
Mr Koh removed several small parts from the bicycle, including a blue bolt, to verify ownership.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
The student identified the missing items properly.
Confident that he had the right owner, Mr Koh returned the bicycle to him.
“[I’m] impressed about his survivor story,” he added to MS News, also noting the many injuries on the student’s limbs.
While the student has little hope that his phone will ever be found, getting his bicycle back was a big win.
Image courtesy of Christopher Koh
“I was relieved but also heart pain [sic] cause the bike was so damaged,” he told MS News.
“But overall happy to get it back, at least I didn’t have to buy a new one.”
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured images courtesy of Christopher Koh.