River Valley Road was the scene of brief chaos yesterday night when a silver Mercedes Benz convertible smashed through a barrier and plunged into a canal leading to the Singapore River.
When rescuers dived down into the depths, the bodies of two women were extricated from the car.
The freak accident transpired just after 9pm yesterday, according to various media reports, at the Alexandra Canal, right next to Valley Point Shopping Centre. Witnesses at the scene told reporters that the car ran over some bushes and crossed a pedestrian path before crashing past the canal’s barricade. When the car plunged into the 2m-deep water, it didn’t float back up.
Divers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force’s Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) manually pulled out the two women from the car, said to have been fully submerged. Paramedics pronounced them both dead at the scene after the bodies were retrieved around 9.45pm.
The women have been identified as 51-year-old Yep Lay Choo and her daughter, 22-year-old Kimberly Poon, The Straits Times reports. Prior to the accident, the two had gone to Valley Point Shopping Centre for dinner, and were last seen on CCTV carrying grocery bags to their car, smiling and walking happily.
It was only about 1.50am that tow trucks managed to hoist the vehicle out from the water, which had airbags deployed and boot popped open.
The SCDF have handed the case over to the police for further investigations.
