On Sunday (10 Apr), a 24-year-old foodpanda delivery rider met with a fatal accident along Gambas Avenue when he tried to avoid a van that had abruptly switched lanes.
Following the tragic incident, a rider who frequently travels along Gambas Avenue, Mr Syed Al-Qudree, shared his concerns about the road layout on Facebook.
Source: Facebook
He explained that shortly before the U-turn along Gambas Avenue is a slip road from Gambas Crescent — drivers thus only have a short distance to cut across 3 lanes to execute the U-turn.
Mr Syed said he had written to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) about it in 2020 and requested a double white line be added.
However, LTA apparently rejected the idea as the road was not deemed an accident-prone area. But they shared that they have plans to move the U-turn further down the road.
According to Mr Syed’s Facebook post, there is a slip road along Gambas Avenue – near the site of the 10 Apr accident – where cars from Gambas Crescent filter to. Slightly after the slip road is an opening where drivers are allowed to execute a U-turn.
Image courtesy of Syed Al-Qudree
Cars coming from the slip road have about 30m to filter across three lanes to make the U-turn.
Video courtesy of Syed Al-Qudree
Speaking to MS News, Mr Syed said he frequents the road every day and often observes this phenomenon. He shared that he had nearly gotten into accidents on several occasions too.
Believing that the layout was dangerous, Mr Syed emailed LTA about the issue in Oct 2020.
Mr Syed suggested that LTA could draw a double white line near the slip road. This would prevent motorists exiting the slip road from cutting across all 3 lanes within such a short distance.
Video courtesy of Syed Al-Qudree
This is mainly because they will be filtering out at a slow speed onto Gambas Avenue, which has a relatively high speed limit of 70km/h.
However, Mr Syed said LTA rejected his idea, claiming it would inconvenience motorists heading towards Woodlands Avenue 12, located further down the road.
Addressing his concerns, LTA said their records show that the Gambas Avenue-Gambas Crescent area is not prone to accidents.
They also added that the line of sight is good along Gambas Avenue and that there’s at least 30m between the slip road and the U-turn.
In addition, there are lane markings urging approaching motorists to give way to oncoming traffic. As per the highway code, drivers are also supposed to keep left upon exiting the slip road.
LTA also felt that a double white line would not stop cars from cutting across lanes. Nonetheless, they acknowledged Mr Syed’s concerns about the short filtering distance to the U-turn location.
In an excerpt of the email seen by MS News, LTA said they would be making arrangements to relocate the U-turn location. However, they will only be doing so in conjunction with road diversion works for the North-South Corridor (NSC) project.
Despite LTA’s assurances, Mr Syed worries that this will take time. He maintained that a double white line could be a temporary deterrent that better ensures safety.
Following the accident on Sunday (10 Apr), he wrote to LTA once again and is still awaiting their response.
In his Facebook post, Mr Syed shared that he attended the 10 Apr accident victim’s funeral yesterday (11 Apr) and wondered if this could be avoided if something had been done about the concerns raised.
He told MS News that the victim was his ex-colleague’s husband.
Mr Syed claimed that the van had been changing lanes to make the U-turn but had changed his mind, causing him to hit the motorcycle.
Nonetheless, photos of the accident site show that it happened on the left-most lane right after the slip road.
To validate his concerns, Mr Syed shared videos of previous accidents that had occurred there due to cars cutting across lanes such as this incident in 2018.
ROADS.sg on Facebook
In Dec 2019, there was also a fatal accident along Gambas Avenue involving a GrabFood rider, though it’s unclear if this involved the slip road.
More recently, there was also an accident at the U-Turn lane in May 2020.
While the van driver from the 10 Apr accident has since been arrested for careless driving, the life of a young father-to-be is lost forever.
While LTA will eventually be locating the U-turn site, the recent incident as well as those that occurred in previous years demonstrate the importance of every motorist playing their part by driving safely.
So the next time you take to the roads, do remember to exercise caution. Only then can our roads be a safer place for all.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image courtesy of Syed Al-Qudree.
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