SBS bus hijacked for 5 hours
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TNP: 5-hour wheelchair stand-off
January 20, 2010
By Amanda Yong from The New Paper, 19 January 2010
For almost five hours, a family of four and a maid sat inside the bus, refusing to alight from the stationary vehicle. They insited on staying pu as they had paid their fares. At the same time, the driver refused to move off.
The reason for the stalemate: His bus was not wheel-chair accessible, but the group insisted on boarding with a wheelchair. As a result, the driver parked the vehicle at the side of the road. The other passengers had to alight and wait at the bus stop for another bus to come along.
During the long and heated stand-off at Mandai Road on Sunday, accusations were hurled and tears were shed.
The police were called in to calm the situation, but even their presence did not end the stand-off.
And all teh while, a frail 90 year old grandmother – part of the family – sprawled on a seat at the back of the bus, exhausted by the wait.
A Chinese national couple from Beijing were among the five who had gone to the Mandai Columbarium that morning.
The wife, Madam Lin, 48, who works in the media industry, said they went there to pay their respects to her husband’s late uncle. The visit to the old man’s niche was the reason they were in Singapore.
Accompanying them were the late uncle’s 90-year-old widow and her daughter-both Singaporeans and a maid. They took a wheelchair with them in case the old woman needed it.
Although she can walk without support, she had a stroke a month ago and they were worried about her condition, Madam Lin said.
She claimed they had no problems boarding a bus in Bedok, with the wheelchair, to head to Mandai in the mornin. But their return journey – supposedly on the same SBS bus service 138 – was a different story.
When they tried to board it at a bus stop on Mandai Road around 12.40pm, they were refused entry. The driver said wheelchairs were not allowed on the bus as it was not wheelchair-accessible.
Madam Lin claimed the driver noticed the folded wheelchair they were carrying only after they had paid their fares.
“I was very surprised because there were no signs on the exterior and interior of the bus that said wheelchairs are not allowed on the bus,” she told Shin Min Daily News. So she and the others refused to budge.
The driver informed his office about the situation and stopped the bus by the roadside. The other passengers – about 10 of them – were told to alight and wait for the next bus.
Madam Lin and her family members sat at the rear of the bus and insisted on staying put.
Unable to resolve the matter, the bus driver called the police. More than five police officers took turns to calm the situation, Shin Min Daily News reported.
But Madam Lin and her family could not be persuaded. Instead, they stood their ground, speaking in loud and agitated voices.
When contacted yesterday, a police spokesman confirmed that they received a call at 1.30m about a dispute along Mandai Road.
From the back of the bus, they chanted repeatedly to the policement: “We want to go home! We haven’t had lunch and haven’t been able to go to the toilet. Now we don’t have any transport to go back home. What are we supposed to do?”
During the stand-off, emotions were so over-wrought that the widow’s daughter broke down in tears. The old woman, who looked weak, pale and tired, lay helplessly on a bus seat.
Asked why they did not hail a taxi to go home since the elderly aunt was not well, Madam Lin said they were not the ones in the wrong. Moreover, she added, it would have been difficult to get a cab as the area they were in was quite deserted.
That was why they kept asking the bus company to get them a taxi, Madam Lin said.
She also told Shin Min Daily News that they were not willing to pay the taxi fare and that she had hoped the police officers would take them home in a police car.
The bus driver, who wanted to be known only as Mr Chen, 48, said he had tried to explain to the group that he could not allow them on the bus with the wheelchair for safety reasons.
But they still tapped their ez-link cards on the card reader. Mr Chen then informed his company headquarters about the matter and was told to stop the bus.
The stand-off ended some time after 5pm when SBS Transit arranged for a maxi cab to take the gruop home without charge.
Read rest of article on The New Paper.
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Bus driver reject wheelchaired passenger, quarrel lasted 5 hrs
Ah Tiong Bu & Ah Tiong with their 90yr old wheelchair bound Ah Tiong Aunty, Ah Tiong Bu Friend & Maid want to board a SBS bus. But SBS Bus is not those WAB (Wheel Chair Accessible Bus) So Bus Driver Dont want to let them board.
But ATB & AT Force themselves onto the bus. Bus Driver Fear for their safety (And his own), stopped at the side of the road and persuade them to alight. But ATB & AT die die dont want, So Bus driver called mata to come help.
After 5 hours of woo-ahh .. they finally agreed to alight from bus.. not before demanding for a cab from SBS to send them home.
http://news.omy.sg/News/Local%2BNews/Story/OMYStory201001181508-121135.htmlhttp://forums.sgclub.com/singapore/bus_driver_reject_241069.html
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Singaporeans cuffed, shackled and chained for distributing flyers while PRCs were allowed to create public nuisance freely
January 20, 2010
Two Singaporeans were in the courtroom yesterday clothed in orange overalls labelled “Cluster B”, cuffed, shackled and chained as they were brought back to court in the middle of their sentence to answer yet more charges for illegal assembly.
Dr Chee Soon Juan and Mr Gandhi Ambalam are serving a one-week prison sentence after they were convicted for illegal assembly without a permit for distributing flyers critical of the PAP in 2006.
In his verdict, District Judge Ch’ng Lye Beng said he agreed with the Prosecution that “distributing flyers in a group of 5 or more persons criticizing the PAP government’s policies is an offence.”
Dr Chee and his colleagues from the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) had “distributed flyers at the Raffles City Shopping Centre on 10 September 2006 questioning the ministers’ salaries as well as the denial of political rights to Singaporeans,” according to the SDP’s website.
Both defendants were still cuffed, shackled and chained when they entered the dock until District Judge Chia Wee Kiat order the cuffs to be removed though their ankles remained shackled and fastened to the bench like some hardcore criminals.
Dr Chee’s sister Ms Chee Siok Chin then requested the judge to order the shackles on their feet removed as “these men posed absolutely no security threat whatsoever” after which judge directed Mr. Gandhi and Dr. Chee to be placed in another dock that had bars all around it, and the restraints to be removed.
The humiliating treatment dished out to Dr Chee and Mr Ambalam is in stark contrast to that received by a PRC family who “hijacked” a SBS Transit bus two days ago by refusing to leave it.
They had boarded the bus without wheelchair accessibility at Mandai and was told by the bus captain that they were not allowed to bring the wheelchair up the bus due to safety reasons. However, they insisted on doing so and sat on the bus for 6 hours, making a din in it.
Though the police was called to the scene, they did not arrest them on the spot as they should have done so under the new Public Orders Act.
The police officers were later seen “escorting” them down the bus with one of them carrying their wheelchair to a Maxi-cab paid for by SBS to send them home.
It is irony that legitimate political activities are being criminalized in Singapore as “illegal assembly” while foreigners who were obviously causing public nuisance and disorder were let off the hook just like that.
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http://www.nanyangpost.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146661
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Originally posted by jayh272416:
they prob took 171 to get there
The new paper report says tat they took a bus from Bedok to Mandai.. -
Originally posted by jayh272416:
actually if they wanted to they could have just alighted from the bus right at the spot
instead they choose to stay behind and cause trouble.
such people deserve to be shot.
Yeah.Shot dead in public,skinned alive and best of all : get runned over by tat Merc :) -
Originally posted by Merczrox:
The new paper report says tat they took a bus from Bedok to Mandai..Wad bus from bedok go mandai direct????
-1,500th Post
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Originally posted by TownLink 291:
Wad bus from bedok go mandai direct????
Hw do i know?The new paper report says so..Tat was wat i also was tinking.Tink they jus cut short put they took from Bedok to Mandai instead of saying clearly tat they transferred buses on their way there. -
Originally posted by Merczrox:
Hw do i know?The new paper report says so..Tat was wat i also was tinking.Tink they jus cut short put they took from Bedok to Mandai instead of saying clearly tat they transferred buses on their way there.But then somehow they must have taken 171??? Cause thats the only WAB svc in that area.
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Originally posted by TownLink 291:
But then somehow they must have taken 171??? Cause thats the only WAB svc in that area.
Shld be.Cuz the report says tat they werent stopped while boarding a bus on their way to Mandai.So it shld be 171. -
Now, they become overnite PRC hero.
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Originally posted by Merczrox:
Shld be.Cuz the report says tat they werent stopped while boarding a bus on their way to Mandai.So it shld be 171.Then they should bloody well take back 171 instead of fussing with 138's merc.
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Originally posted by Merczrox:
Yeah.Shot dead in public,skinned alive and best of all : get runned over by tat Merc :)theyre not fit to be run over by a merc.
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Originally posted by Merczrox:
Hw do i know?The new paper report says so..Tat was wat i also was tinking.Tink they jus cut short put they took from Bedok to Mandai instead of saying clearly tat they transferred buses on their way there.
Yes. They did transferred from other buses. -
Originally posted by TownLink 291:
Then they should bloody well take back 171 instead of fussing with 138's merc.
Yeah. -
Originally posted by jayh272416:
theyre not fit to be run over by a merc.
Haha yeah. -
What you see here is when you have a bus company which is inflexible, and bloody PRCs who are so stubborn. Seriously sometimes these FTs need some form of CME class, not just ah tiongs, but some of the other groups of people (erm erm, many people should know who are they), last time where got people think they are boss in Singapore?
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Agreed.
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what do you think will happen if this family did the same thing back in China?; i mean creating some sort of public saga like this?
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Originally posted by SBS3688Y:
what do you think will happen if this family did the same thing back in China?
I think the family will get beaten up by the driver. -
Originally posted by likeyou:
I think the family will get beaten up by the driver.
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People, other than this incident, expect more to come from PRCs.
More movies, TV dramas
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Yes akan datang...I wonder whether there is any incident where local girl fight with prc girl. Who will win?
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Originally posted by Fantagf:
People, other than this incident, expect more to come from PRCs.
More movies, TV dramas
soon the world will know what kind of police force and governance we have in sg -
Originally posted by Fantagf:
People, other than this incident, expect more to come from PRCs.
More movies, TV dramas
More dramas.