'It's like waiting for a gift that will never arrive': Mum of Singaporean who died in fatal NZ crash

Years after the deaths of Singaporean Chin Tze Hau, 38, and his wife Ong See Yee, 29, in a fatal car crash, his mother is still reeling from the loss.

Chin and Ong, who had been married for six years, died in a 2017 accident in New Zealand. The pair were colleagues at an audio-visual products company in Kaki Bukit, where Chin was a technical director and Ong an operations executive.

Media reports at the time stated that the camper van Chin was driving had inexplicably veered across the centre line and crashed into an oncoming pick-up truck. The 2017 accident on May 4 occurred on State Highway 1, about 40km south of Christchurch.

The long-awaited road trip was meant to celebrate Ong's birthday, and the couple had planned the trip for months.

Probable cause: Driver fatigue


A police spokesperson had responded to media following the crash that the reasons behind the accident were "unknown".

However, last month, the results of a coroner's report revealed that "driver fatigue" was the probable cause of the accident, said Chin's mother, identified by Lianhe Wanbao as Madam Zhang.

According to investigations, the couple had arrived in New Zealand at 8.30am after an approximately 10-hour flight from Singapore and rented a camper van two hours later. The accident occurred shortly after in the afternoon at 1.12pm.

The coroner's report stated that the camper van Chin was driving had veered off the highway and onto the grass verge. Based on speed calculations, Chin took 1.56 seconds to realise this and tried to steer the vehicle back on the road.

However, he lost control of the camper van, which overturned onto the opposing lane and was struck by the "ute", a utility vehicle that is similar to a pick-up truck. The couple were killed instantly with injuries to their heads and upper bodies while the driver of the truck sustained an arm injury.

Sleepless nights

In an interview with Wanbao, Madam Zhang shared how she still misses her son and daughter-in-law deeply.

Even though four years have passed, she is still unable to process her grief, which causes her sleepless nights. She'd often find herself waking up in the middle of the night, shouting and screaming.

Chin was the eldest of her three sons and a filial child, said Madam Zhang. He would come back to have dinner with her every evening even though he had moved out. Out of habit, she still looks out of the window while she is cooking, hoping to see a familiar silhouette walking along the pathway.

She shared that the accident had happened on the eve of Mother's Day, and in the past, the brothers would always chip in to buy a gift for her. "Even though he's gone, I still feel like I'm waiting for a gift that will never arrive," she said.

Besides the nightmares, Chin's death has also impacted her mentally and emotionally, said Madam Zhang, who still lives at home with her second son.

Whenever her son returns home late, she would call him up multiple times to check on him. She also gets anxious whenever they drive too fast when she's being ferried in their cars.

"When I see reports of young people dying, I'd get upset and tear up," said Madam Zhang. 

On the coroner's evaluation, Madam Zhang told Lianhe Wanbao that the family had never agonised over the cause of their deaths. But she shared that Chin didn't drive often and before their holiday, she had advised him to be careful.

"Perhaps this is my son's fate that he couldn't escape from," she told Wanbao.

Only cure for fatigue is sleep

In her report, coroner Anna Tutton cited New Zealand Transport Agency's (NZTA) advice on the cure for fatigue, "which is to get a good night's sleep".

"Where stopping overnight is not practical, a break every two hours, or every 100km, should be incorporated into the journey," said Tutton.

According to the NZTA, some obvious signs of fatigue are when you experience trouble focusing, keeping your eyes opened or holding your head up. One may also daydream, have wandering or disconnected thoughts or loss of memory.

Yawning or rubbing one's eyes repeatedly, drifting between lanes, tailgating, and feeling restless and irritable are other warning signs of fatigue setting in.

candicecai@asiaone.com