Cyclist mistaken for driver after stopping to help woman who fell at Bukit Batok zebra crossing
A cyclist who approached a fellow rider after she appeared to have fallen at a zebra crossing was unexpectedly mistaken for the driver who purportedly knocked her down.
Jonathon, a 35-year-old swim coach, told Stomp that he was cycling around the Bukit Batok estate with his family at around 2.55pm on Sept 11 when the incident happened.
They had reached a cross junction between Bukit Batok West Avenue 8 and Avenue 3, and were waiting for the traffic light.
He then heard a loud bang, which sounded like a collision, followed by what seemed to be the sound of a bicycle hitting the ground.
“I’m a first aider. I experienced a few road traffic accidents myself as a driver and a motorcyclist and I know how bad it felt, so my first instinct was to help,” he explained.
Woman mistakes cyclist for driver
Later that day, Jonathon shared a video of the incident on TikTok, with the camera panning to show a white car stationary in the middle of the zebra crossing.
A woman appears to have fallen off her bicycle. Jonathon goes over to her and helps to lift the bicycle back up as the driver gets out of the vehicle.
“This is a zebra crossing,” the woman tells Jonathon, before asking in in Mandarin: “Why were you driving?”
“It’s not me, he was driving,” Jonathon replies with a chuckle, pointing to the driver who was behind the woman.
Later, Jonathon tells the driver: “Zebra crossing, you’re supposed to stop. You stop, but you ram her then you stop.”
The driver apologises to the woman as the video ends.
Jonathon added that the driver stopped his car further down the road, appearing to exchange contact information with the woman.
When asked how he felt about being mistaken for the driver, he reflected: “I felt that the conversation was quite funny but concerned at the same time as I know she might be in shock.”
Netizens praise cyclist
The post, which garnered over 7,600 likes, drew supportive comments from netizens.
“Good on you for assisting the victim,” one netizen commented.
In response to another comment, Jonathon said that the woman was “absolutely civilised”.
“I feel so sad for her, her bicycle is so new and that fall must have hurt,” he wrote.
However, others backed the driver, saying that the cyclist should have slowed down and looked for cars before crossing the road.
Chan Boon Fui, group director of the Active Mobility Group at the Land Transport Authority, said in a media reply in 2022 that cyclists and personal mobility device users are not required to dismount at zebra crossings.
However, they are required to slow down, stop and look out for oncoming traffic before crossing.
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