Car driver and 3 others arrested after Bukit Timah accident involving school bus; 2 children taken to hospital

Source: TODAY

SINGAPORE -- A car driver and his three passengers were arrested on Wednesday (March 6) after a major accident along Bukit Timah Road that also involved a school bus.

Two children were among the six people taken to hospital.

The police said they were alerted to the incident at about 6am.

The car caught fire when it crashed, the police said, adding that its officers pulled two passengers -- a 27-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman -- to safety.

"A 26-year-old male car driver was arrested for failing to provide (a) breath specimen," the police said.

Another man in the car, aged 22, was arrested for traffic-related offences along with the other two passengers.

The four people in the car were taken to hospital. The other two were children from the school bus, aged eight and nine. Police said all of them were conscious.

Police investigations are ongoing.

Photos and videos of the incident, which occurred just after Sixth Avenue, showed the car in flames near a fallen lamp-post.

The white school bus was missing both its front wheels. The wheels, still connected to the vehicle's axle, were seen a short distance away.

The bus' windscreen was smashed and debris, including what appeared to be books, was strewn across the road.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was alerted to the incident at about 6.20am.

Six people were taken to the National University Hospital, said SCDF, adding that another person with minor injuries did not want to be taken to hospital.

An eyewitness who wanted to be known as Mr Ang told CNA that he heard an "extremely thunderous sound" at about 6.05am from his home at Royalgreen condominium.

It was "like huge metal crashing into the ground", he said, adding that the accident happened along Bukit Timah Road near a U-turn after Anamalai Avenue.

"I peered out of the balcony and realised the accident was very serious. I saw several primary school students ushered out of the school bus in the aftermath too," the retiree recounted. He said the students appeared to be all boys.