In his attempt to mark out a route for his fellow members in the Seletar Hash House Harriers running club, Tay Yong Kwang inadvertently caused a security scare at Woodleigh MRT station, causing train services to be shut down for several hours on April 18.
The 69-year-old has since been slapped with a S$1,000 fine yesterday — the maximum penalty for causing public nuisance, Channel NewsAsia reported.
Along with two other club members, they marked out a route at 10m to 15m intervals from Mount Vernon in the direction of Upper Serangoon Road. Tay left small mounds of baking flour at the MRT station platform — a “you are on path” marker, according to the hashing trail marking rulebook.
This was to let his fellow hashers know to head towards Woodleigh Close from Bidadari via the MRT underpass, but the usage of flour proved to be a grave error. One of the flour piles was discovered by a station master, who then checked CCTV footage only to find Tay sprinkling the then-unknown substance around the station. Police were called in, and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) even deployed its Hazmat crew to the scene. The station was shut down, and all trains were prohibited from passing through.
Hazmat specialists soon discovered the powder that caused a security alarm turned out to be… simple baking flour.
Presumably, the maximum fine was dealt on Tay because his antics affected more than 1,200 commuters, due to 40 trains being diverted. One hundred and seven police officers were also deployed to handle the “security threat”.
Seletar Hash House Harriers, a local offshoot of the international running social club, has since apologized for the incident in a press release, acknowledging that they shouldn’t have caused public alarm by having three of their members mark their running route through the train station.
“They are sorry that their actions caused public alarm and inconvenience,” wrote the running club, which pledged to be “more mindful” when planning future runs.
Reader Interactions