Toddler injured after MRT station fare gate closes on him; SBS Transit apologizes for distress caused

Photo: Kelly Ng/Facebook
Photo: Kelly Ng/Facebook

A three-year-old boy was injured at Hougang MRT station on Sunday (Jul 16) evening when a fare gate unexpectedly closed on him while he was making his way through the gantry.

His aunt took to Facebook to describe the incident in a post that has since gone viral.

Her nephew had reportedly tapped his EZ-link card and was about to walk through the gates when they “closed up on him very fast”. She expressed her anger at the two staff members in the control station and claimed they only rendered assistance to help call an ambulance after the boy’s mother opened the side gate to check on the toddler’s injury.

“He complained about pain on his chest and stomach, and perhaps on his shoulder too,” she wrote. “The main grouse from my sister is the two staff did not try to assist or come out from their seat to even take a look at my nephew who has been injured by the gates. They even tried to record my sister’s conversation with them. This kind of service standard is totally unacceptable.”

According to the Facebook post, the boy can be seen being brought out on a stretcher to the ambulance.

With help from CCTV footage, SBS Transit determined that there was no malfunction at the gate.

According to Channel NewAsia, SBS Transit’s senior vice president of corporate communications Tammy Tan said: “As Mrs Lim (the child’s mother) was making her way through the fare gate, there was a distance between her and the stroller causing the system to recognise this as entry by two separate entities. The stroller passed through the fare gate on the mother’s card while the mother did so on the child’s card. Therefore, when the child proceeded forward, the flaps of the fare gates closed on him as the system had detected an intrusion.”

She also said the team spoke to the child’s father to check on his recovery, and acknowledged that “our staff should have come out from their office to see if the child was hurt and required medical attention.”

“We could have handled this better and do apologise for any distress caused. We will take the necessary actions to do better … We wish Mr Lim’s son a speedy recovery,” she added.



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