Tree falls on woman

SINGAPORE - The woman's screams got his attention as he was taking a customer's order at around 10am on Thursday.

The worker at Yes Boss Food Corner, who gave his name only as Mr Saifullah, 27, said nothing looked amiss from where he was.

Curious, he got hold of his boss, Mr Atiq Ur Rehman, and went to investigate.

The sight that greeted them at the traffic junction in front of Block 118, Bedok Reservoir Road, shocked them.

A tree, about 3m tall, had fallen and was pinning a woman to the road.

Said Mr Saifullah: "She was crying in pain and kept saying 'pain, pain'. She also kept asking for her husband."

He said that about 10 people, including nearby residents and passers-by, had gathered around the tree.

"We carried the tree from the road to the pavement... Others were telling her not to cry and that everything was going to be okay," he said.

Some people then used their umbrellas to shield the woman from the rain as they waited for help to arrive.

Mr Saifullah said the ambulance arrived after about 15 minutes.

"Her leg looked twisted and it might be fractured, so they had to send her to Changi (General) Hospital," he said.

Mr Saifullah has been a cook at the stall selling North Indian and Pakistani food for four years.

When asked why he was willing to help out, he shyly said: "I don't want to tell people I helped because I don't want people to think I am showing off. I helped out because I wanted to do it, not for people to know about it."

Mr Saifullah added that he heard there had been a boy near the tree when it fell, but the boy managed to run away in time.

Singapore Civil Defence Force officers arrived at 10.37am and found a woman, 56, who had suffered injuries to her right leg.

National Parks Board (NParks) officers arrived at around noon to remove the tree.

Mr Ng Seng Tai, who owns the nearby Dijon mini-mart, now fears for his own safety when crossing the roads during heavy rain.

It was his first time witnessing such an incident after living in the area for more than 20 years.

The 73-year-old said: "The trees here are not very strong. Now, I'm very afraid to walk under these trees."

This is the second such incident in less than a week.

On Sunday, a tree fell on an excavator, killing the worker inside.

The incident took place at a construction site in Thomson Road.

The man who died, Mr Gunasakaram, 36, had worked in Singapore for about 10 years.

The Indian national leaves behind a wife and children.

Excavator operator Sudalei said Mr Guna had been removing weeds around the tree when it fell. They had been working in the area for about a month and only a small patch of land remained to be cleared.

"That tree was not supposed to fall," another worker said.

According to a May report in The Straits Times, over the past 10 years, four people have died and 62 were injured by falling trees and branches. There were 122 cases of trees being uprooted from January to April this year.

natasyai@sph.com.sg

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