Oil spill on BKE causes massive road disruption
SINGAPORE — Traffic on a stretch of the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) came to a crawl for more than half a day, after an oil tanker spilled its contents onto the road, leading to the closure of two out of the four lanes and choking traffic all the way to Woodlands.
The oil tanker had been involved in an accident with a car early today (Jan 29) on a section of the BKE after Mandai leading to the Pan-island Expressway. The police were notified at 2.54am and a 41-year-old man was later brought conscious to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
But it was some hours later before the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) was alerted to the palm oil spill, at 6.07am. It deployed two fire engines to the scene to clear the slick, while the snarl of unmoving vehicles grew longer.
Public transport operator SMRT said on its Facebook page that the jam stretched back to Woodlands Avenues 1, 2 and 3, and caused SMRT buses to be stuck at Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange. According to SMRT, 11 bus services were affected, before the situation improved around 12pm.
Mr Razali Tompang, a 37-year-old executive at an non-governmental organisation in Singapore who lives in Malaysia, said his commute took twice as long. “Usually it takes me 22 minutes from Checkpoint to Geylang, today it took 54 minutes,” he said.
Mr Razali, a Malaysian, had been worried that he would be marked down by his employers for being late. “It will go into my punctuality record ... Because being late is still late, even if for one minute.” he added.
Mr Stephen Chong, 24, a final-year business undergraduate at NTU, said he was caught in a jam along Mandai Road for one hour at about 7.40am.
“I turned back because I knew it was going to be even more packed if I were to turn into the motorway,” the Yishun resident said. “It normally takes roughly around 45 minutes during peak time to get to NTU, but I was stuck along Mandai for one hour, and I hadn’t even gotten onto the expressway.”
After clean-up and road resurfacing efforts by the SCDF and the Land Transport Authority, one lane was re-opened at 3.15pm. Full operation of both affected lanes resumed at 6.35pm.
The Malaysian-registered oil tanker is operated by Teo Tuan Kwee Sdn Bhd. When contacted, company spokesperson Eric Ang responded: “Police are still investigating this incident. At this moment, we are still waiting for (the) investigation report.” ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ASYRAF KAMIL
