[top: The crash on April 26 last year near the Adam Road flyover injured two people and damaged five vehicles. Heavy vehicle collisions that caused injuries and deaths have risen for the third year running.]
By Teh Joo Lin
THE speeding trailer swerved, hit a van and a taxi, and then ploughed into a lamp post and trees at the centre divider of the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) towards Changi Airport.
As if the damage was not great enough, the crash dislodged the six concrete slabs it was ferrying. They landed on both sides of the highway, causing a six-hour jam.
No one died in the crash on April 26 last year near the Adam Road flyover, but two people were injured and five vehicles damaged, including a van that was crushed by two slabs each weighing about 1,400 tonnes.
Last week, Kane Ong Woon Chong, 26, was jailed six weeks, fined $1,200 and barred from driving for a year.
He had a faulty speed limiter, which would have stopped him from going beyond 50kmh. As it turned out, he was going at up to 70kmh, a police prosecutor told the court yesterday. He also drove dangerously and did not secure the slabs properly.
The prosecutor said: "The accused was driving a vehicle that is excluded from using the expressway as he was conveying his goods - concrete slabs - on an open trailer and not in a standard container."
Heavy vehicle collisions that caused injuries and deaths have risen for the third year running, the Traffic Police told The Straits Times.
In 2006, there were 175 cases. This went up to 182 cases the following year and 259 last year.
Similarly, the number of heavy vehicle drivers booked for violations such as speeding and dangerous driving has also increased with heavier enforcement.
Last year, about 3,000 summonses were issued, more than double the 1,160 in 2007. In this year's first three months, 650 summonses were handed out.
Heavy vehicles like prime movers, trailers and tipper trucks have to observe speed limits of up to 60kmh.
In January last year, a 47-year-old man died after a prime mover with a faulty speed limiter ploughed into a stalled car along the PIE.
He had taken a taxi to go to the aid of his wife whose car had broken down on the expressway.
He was walking towards the front of the car when the prime mover smashed into the back of the car, which surged forward and hit him.
The driver was estimated to have been travelling at about 70kmh - 10kmh over the speed limit designated for a prime mover.
Speed limiters - which work by cutting the throttle when the vehicles go beyond the calibrated speed limit - were introduced in 1999.
They have to be installed on buses with a maximum laden weight of more than 10 tonnes, and more than 12 tonnes for other vehicles.
While some speed limiters are faulty, some drivers deliberately disable them in a bid to go faster so they can make as many trips as they can, said those in the industry.
A 38-year-old general manager of a transport company said that heavy vehicle drivers generally earn by the number of trips they make. While rates differ, a driver earns about $20 a trip for transporting a loaded 40-foot container, he said.
Anyone found to have tampered with the speed limiters of heavy vehicles or who drives a heavy vehicle with a faulty limiter can be jailed up to three months or fined up to $1,000.
In the first three months of this year, 32 summonses were issued for speed limiter offences, said the Traffic Police.
"Although the number of fatal accidents involving heavy vehicles remains low, the Traffic Police takes a strong stance against traffic violations committed by them due to the severe consequences when such vehicles are involved in accidents," said a spokesman.
