SMRT admits that the deaths of their two young staffers were due to a safety lapse

With the two SMRT employees who lost their lives in the line of duty laid to rest side by side yesterday at Choa Chu Kang Muslim cemetery, the tide of anguish against the public transport operators are rising. 

This is especially so after a press release yesterday evening, where SMRT admitted that there were safety lapses that occured and lead to the deaths of 26-year-old Nasrulhudin Najumudin and 24-year-old Muhammad Asyraf Ahmad Buhari on Tuesday. The two trainees were hit and killed by an oncoming train on the tracks near Pasir Ris MRT station when during an investigation into a triggered monitoring device. 

From their findings, SMRT revealed that no coordination was done to ensure that the trains came to a stop when maintenance staff were crossing the tracks. 
 
 The official timeline of events is as follows: 


 

Photo: SMRT

 8.08am: A signalling condition monitoring device along the tracks near Pasir Ris MRT stations pinged a warning.
 
10.54am: Authorisation granted for a team to move down from the station platform, cross the track and access the maintenance walkway to reach the device. A 15-man team (including the two deceased) went down in a single file toward the device. 

Standard protocol requires the team to coordinate with the signal unit at the station for oncoming trains to be brought to a stop before they step back on the trackway. This did not happen. 

11:08am: A train — travelling at 60kmh — had been moving in automatic mode and was due to berth at Pasir Ris MRT station. Train driver sees staff on track and applies emergency brakes — but proved to be too late. One staff member managed to escape in time, but unfortunately Nasrulhudin and Muhammad Asyraf were hit and killed. 


“We take responsibility and apologise for the tragic accident,” SMRT wrote in their media release. “We express our deepest condolences to the families of Nasrulhudin and Muhammad Asyraf in their time of grief.” 

Words however seemed to be ineffectual to some of the victims’ relatives. “What we resent are your attempts to clear yourselves of any fault, insisting that you have observed all the standard operating procedures,” wrote a relative in an open letter to SMRT. “If you did everything right, then your standard operating procedures must be flimsy.”

On their end, the transport operator stated that they’ve already established a team to evaluate all workplace safety procedures as well as mandatory work-team level safety reviews. 

“We are continuing to support the Police and the Ministry of Manpower in their ongoing investigations,” they noted. 



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