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By Eunice Toh and Rennie Whang
SINGAPORE - Two accidents at the same traffic intersection. Just 15 minutes apart.
This happened on Sunday night at the junction in front of Northpoint Shopping Centre.
And what chaos.
A BMW overturned, and four people were taken to hospital after the accident that involved seven vehicles - cabs, cars and a motorcycle.
Aqil Faiz, 18, was at home in Yishun Street 11 at about 11.20pm when he received a call from his aunt telling him that she had been in an accident.
The student rushed downstairs and was shocked to see a yellow taxi, with its front completely dented, at the junction.
On the ground in front of it was a red and white motorcycle, leaking petrol.
Several metres away, a man with a white beard lay face-up, while paramedics attended to him. Said Aqil: "It was very surreal. I'd never seen anything like this before."
Nearby was his aunt's grey Mitsubishi car.
He said: "My aunt's car just had a dent on the bumper. She wasn't hurt, but she was in shock."
While Aqil was calming her down by the roadside, he suddenly heard a loud crunching sound.
He said: "It sounded like metal on metal, and glass and plastic meshing."
He looked up, and saw a black BMW approaching the junction from Yishun Avenue 2. In front of the car were two blue Comfort cabs.
Before he knew it, there was a crash and the BMW flipped, turned over and landed.
"It was really out of the blue," said Aqil.
The impact shattered the BMW's windows and deployed the vehicle's airbags.
"Passers-by who had been helping at the first accident quickly ran over to help the driver and his passengers out of the car," said Aqil.
"All were conscious. They were just dazed."
Aqil added that that, interestingly enough, the people involved were silent.
"There was no screaming or crying. The passengers were all quiet. But the entire junction was filled with glass and debris," he said.
One of the cabbies involved in the second accident, who wanted to be known only as MrNg, 62, said he had been driving a Korean student to Changi Airport.
Unhurt
Both were unhurt and his passenger caught another taxi to the airport, while Mr Ng stayed to assist the traffic police. He left the scene about 2am.
A police spokesman said they were told about an accident involving a taxi, a car and a motorcycle that night, and were notified of a second incident about 10minutes later.
The second accident involved a car and three taxis.
There were two casualties from the first accident - the motorcyclist and a taxi driver.
One, a man in his 60s, had chest discomfort and giddiness, said a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) spokesman.
The other was a man in his 30s, who had leg and back pain, as well as multiple abrasions on his body.
In the second accident, two people were injured - the BMW driver and one of his passengers.
Both were men in their 30s and 40s. One had multiple cuts to his legs, while the other had a cut to his left ear.
The four injured were taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. The police are investigating.
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