Tree Falls Across Tiong Bahru Road & Blocks Access, Queue Of Buses Seen
The past few days have seen heavy rain blanketing Singapore.
A natural occurrence that unfortunately results from such wet conditions is the falling of trees.
Amid the rain on Friday (3 Mar), a large tree fell across Tiong Bahru Road and blocked access to the entire thoroughfare.
Source: Kenneth Seet on Facebook
It also injured one person and damaged a car.
Tree falls in Tiong Bahru & damages sheltered walkway
Photos posted on social media on Friday evening show that the tree that fell used to stand outside Block 7 Tiong Bahru Road.
Source: Google Maps
However, it now lay across the entire road.
The tree was so tall that it even damaged the sheltered walkway directly across from it, causing the roof to cave in.
Source: Kenneth Seet on Facebook
Its now-exposed roots were so long that they stood at least two storeys high after being uprooted.
Source: Kenneth Seet on Facebook
11 bus services affected, bus stops skipped
As the tree blocked Tiong Bahru Road, the two-way thoroughfare, which has four lanes, was rendered impassable to traffic.
In a Facebook post that evening, SBS Transit said 11 services had been affected.
Source: SBS Transit Ltd on Facebook
They warned passengers on these services that they would be subjected to “prolonged waiting times”, and sought their understanding and patience.
Photos posted online show a queue of buses waiting behind the fallen tree, unable to move farther.
Source: (buses[IN]gapore!) on Facebook
1 person injured, car damaged
Worse still, one person was injured in the incident, reported Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was alerted at about 5.35pm on Friday, CNA quoted them as saying.
SCDF officers conveyed one person to Singapore General Hospital (SGH).
Photos on social media also showed a damaged black Mercedes at the scene.
Source: Charming Lee on Facebook
While its front seemed to have emerged relatively unscathed, the roof and trunk possibly bore most of the impact as they were badly squashed, with debris littered across the vehicle.
Source: SG Road Vigilante on Facebook
It’s uncertain whether the person injured was linked to the damaged car.
Workers started to clear tree within 1 hour
Other photos showed a lorry crane and workers at the scene trying to remove the fallen tree.
As the incident reportedly took place at 5.35pm and there was still light when the workers were there, they should’ve arrived quite soon after the tree fell.
Source: Kenneth Seet on Facebook
In fact, a sawing sound was heard in some of the videos taken. This indicated that the workers had already started to cut through the tree to clear it.
Source: Charming Lee on Facebook
The workers were actually there within an hour, as CNA reported that they were there at 6.30pm along with police vehicles and an ambulance.
At 10.01pm, SBS Transit said in a tweet that their diverted buses had resumed normal operations — likely meaning that the tree had been removed by then, some 4.5 hours later.
Source: SBS Transit on Twitter
MS News wishes a speedy recovery to the person injured as a result of the fallen tree.
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Featured image adapted from Kenneth Seet on Facebook and Charming Lee on Facebook.
