Driver shares near miss with van going against traffic on CTE — gets blamed for reacting too late
A driver who shared footage of a near miss with an oncoming vehicle driving against traffic on the Central Expressway (CTE) has come under criticism online, with some netizens questioning his reaction time.
The short clip of the incident, which took place at 3.52am on June 21, was shared the following day on Instagram page @sgfollowsall.
In it, a vehicle travelling in the wrong direction on Lane 1 of the expressway can be seen repeatedly flashing its high beam.
As the two vehicles approach each other, the camcar driver swerves slightly to the left at the last moment, while the van goes into the narrow grass verge between the divider and the road, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision.
In the audio, which appeared to be out of sync with the footage, a man could be heard hurling expletives in Hokkien.
The original poster captioned the video: “OMG I almost died just now.”
He added: “Driving CTE Expressway Lane 1 — FAST LANE at 3:52 AM... Suddenly a van flashed high-beams straight at me — DRIVING AGAINST TRAFFIC!”
“No time to think, just swerve... how can this happen on a main expressway?!
“Please share so everyone stays alert. This is pure nightmare fuel.”
The video has since drawn more than 184,000 views and 2,500 reactions.
‘What’s bro doing there?’
Many netizens expressed horror that a vehicle was travelling in the wrong direction on the fast lane of one of Singapore’s major expressways.
“Scary,” said one. “What’s bro doing there?” asked another.
However, not everyone felt the camcar driver was blameless, with some arguing that he should have reacted sooner and driven more defensively.
“See flashing lights up ahead don’t know how to tap on the brakes and enable hazard lights ah?” one user asked.
“Slow reaction time. OMG imagine, if got vehicle behind you? Cannot siam (avoid) on time one la,” another commented.
Not everyone agreed with the criticism directed at the camcar driver.
“One putting more blame on the driver driving the right way than the van driving the wrong way,” said one.
Another added: “Driving at 3am feels different. The last thing you expect to see is headlights flashing at you on a expressway head on even i would think that im just hallucinating.”
Others felt both motorists shared responsibility.
“The van driver might have been a goondu (stupid person) but you can prevent an accident by being proactive in preventing one.”
In response to Stomp’s queries, the police said it was alerted to a hit-and-run accident involving a van and a car along the CTE towards the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) at about 4.10am on June 21.
No injuries were reported.
Police investigations are ongoing, and efforts to locate the van driver, who left the scene before officers arrived, are underway.
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