ONLY the driver's pride was hurt when his tipper lorry, well, tipped over and landed on its right side after crashing into a road divider.

But removing the damaged lorry - almost four hours after the accident - sparked frayed tempers as hundreds of motorists were caught in a massive jam at Keppel Road for an hour yesterday.

The tipper lorry, belonging to Hock Chuan Hong Waste Management Pte Ltd (HCH), blocked the entrance to the start of the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) near Keppel Viaduct.

It lay at a 45-degree angle on the elevated road, obstructing incoming vehicles heading towards AYE (Tuas).

Mr Chan Chee Chong, 40, a courier working at the nearby Tanjong Pagar Distripark, said the accident had occurred before he arrived at around 8.50am.

The accident had caused the back axle to be rotated inwards to the side the lorry was resting on.

When The New Paper arrived at the scene at 12.50pm,the lorry was still lying on its side and construction debris that had spilled out was still on the road.

Traffic was smooth as vehicles that could not enter the AYE travelled straight along Keppel Road.

But at about 1pm, traffic started to build up after the police and Expressway Monitoring Advisory Systems (Emas) cordoned off one lane along Keppel Road to remove the lorry.

When asked why it took more than three hours before the lorry could be removed, an Emas officer who declined to be named said: 'It is very heavy. Without its load, it's about three tonnes, but loaded it's close to 10 tonnes.'

There was a dent on the front bumper of the lorry.

Some HCH workers wearing yellow hard hats were at the scene but there was no sign of the lorry driver.

The police confirmed that the driver had 'lost control and skidded at the location'.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, a police spokesman said.

Skid marks were seen from 10m away near the Chevron markings of the road.

It was no easy feat to lift the lorry back to an upright position so that it could be towed away.

The operation required the use of a lorry crane to lift the tipper body of the overturned vehicle, as well as the help of a tow truck to manoeuvre the lorry.

As the workers of HCH toiled away in the afternoon heat removing the back axle of the lorry, motorists also got hot under the collar as a jam built on both sides of Keppel Road.

It took about 50 minutes to lift the lorry upright to be towed away. Even then, the truck had to make complicated turns to get out of the spot.

The traffic diversion ended at 2pm, but vehicles heading towards AYE (Tuas) still had to wait for the construction debris to be cleared.

The New Paper contacted both the manager and owner of HCH but they declined to comment, saying that they had 'no idea' what had happened.

Mr Chan said that accidents along Keppel Road were quite common. He said: 'I think it's mainly because there are many heavy vehicles around here.'

Nurul Asyikin Mohd Nasir, newsroom intern

This article was first published in The New Paper.

Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: Stomp, ST, TNP, Guang Ming Daily, Wanbao, Shin Min)