She was hospitalised for 10 days after a road accident and almost ended up in trouble with the law - all because of her damaged motorcycle.

When Miss Sheetal Singh, 26, was discharged, she found she had been booked for parking offences.

Her motorcycle, which had been towed to a nearby carpark after the accident, had no parking coupons.

The customer service officer did not pay the fines, which eventually snowballed to $900.

When she was summoned to court, she failed to turn up and a warrant of arrest was issued for her.

The mess she landed herself in was finally sorted out last month and the fines were waived.

Miss Singh's problems started on 15 Oct last year, when her motorbike skidded on the Pan-Island Expressway near the Adam Road exit as she swerved to avoid hitting a car.

'I fell on my back and injured my right leg,' she said.

Her badly damaged bike was towed to the Adam Road Food Centre carpark by the Expressway Monitoring Advisory System (Emas) crew.

A Land Transport Authority spokesman said that it is standard procedure for the crew from Emas to tow an accident vehicle to the nearest designated carpark - with the owner or a representative present.

He said that Miss Singh's boyfriend signed a form that day to acknowledge that he would take over her bike. The boyfriend claimed he did not recall signing anything.

Four days later, her boyfriend removed the bike. Apparently, he had tried removing it earlier, but could not start it.

On 13 Nov, Miss Singh received parking summonses for three days, 15 to 17 Oct, amounting to $24.

She called the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) that day and was told to go to its office to file an appeal. When she said she could not move about because of her leg injury, the officer told her he would call her back.

She claimed he never did and she forgot about the matter.

Then, from December, a series of correspondence between her and the URA - and with both parties waiting for the matter to be resolved - eventually led to Miss Singh getting a summons this February to appear in court, and a letter in May informing her that her fines had snowballed to $900, including a penalty for being absent in court.

On 21 May, she was issued with a warrant of arrest.

She was also told to surrender herself to the Warrant Enforcement Unit at the Police Cantonment Complex, which she did two days later.

A month later, Miss Singh went to the URA office and was advised to pay $600 first to remove the 'tagging' on her motorbike by URA before she could renew her road tax.

'But I feel I should not even pay a cent as I did not park my bike there,' she said.

Responding to The New Paper's queries, URA said it has reviewed her case, waived her fines and told the police to withhold the warrant of arrest.