Video of toddler in near miss goes viral

SINGAPORE - A video of a toddler, who was nearly run over by two vehicles after he dashed across a road, went viral just hours after it was posted online yesterday.

The one-minute-long clip on the Facebook page of streetdirectory.com (https://on.fb.me/1iTlA4K) was shared more than 2,600 times within seven hours.

It also attracted more than 100 comments, most praising the drivers for being alert while behind the wheel.

A few people, however, chided a woman - seen in the video running after the boy - for not being more careful while crossing the road with the child.

The incident happened at about 8.50pm on Friday, in what appears to be a school zone along Bedok North Road.

The video was recorded by the in-vehicle camera of a driver who had slammed on his brakes just as the child ran onto the road from a divider.

An SMRT taxi that was in the next lane was also seen in the video stopping just in time.

Sixty-one children, aged 12 and below, were injured in road accidents in the first three months of this year, up from 45 over the same period last year.

Measures to enhance road safety in school zones are among the measures the Government will implement to make roads safer.

They include initiatives such as lowering the speed limit to 40kmh along roads in front of primary schools during certain hours.

This complements measures such as the raising of the number of demerit points handed out for speeding and careless driving offences within school zones.

Shuming Loo, a mother of two girls aged five months and three years, was shocked when she watched the video.

"I've been telling my older daughter, since she learnt how to walk, that she must always hold my hand when crossing the road," said the social worker, 35.

This article by The Straits Times was published in MyPaper, a free, bilingual newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.

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