There is perhaps no rivalry in Singapore greater than cyclists vs motorists. The vitriol hurled from both sides online over on-road incidents would make World War III look like a firecracker.
One infamous display of this occurred in June 2023 at East Coast Road. The altercation appears to have been sparked when a car driver overtook a cyclist on a left turn.
You can read more about it in this article, but we’ll do a quick summary here too.
Car Drives Off With Cyclist Clinging to Hood
When the car stopped at a red traffic light, the furious cyclist caught up. An argument broke out over whether it was okay to overtake on a bend, being caught on the car’s dashcam.
The traffic light turned green, but the yellow-clad cyclist physically blocked the car from going ahead.
After more verbal exchanges, the driver had had enough. She stormed out of her car, grabbed the bicycle, and moved it off the road.
When she got back in and tried to drive off, the cyclist then turned her own body into the obstruction. She blocked the car before eventually straight up jumping onto the hood and giving the dashcam a closeup of her face.
However, the driver did not stop like the cyclist expected. Instead, she drove off with the cyclist clinging onto the hood for dear life, screaming and bashing on the windshield with her fist.
“What’s your problem?” She shrieked.
The cyclist slowly began to slide off the hood, but thankfully before any injuries could happen, the driver turned into the car park of the i12 Katong shopping mall and stopped.
This left the cyclist clutching onto a broken windshield wiper, visibly shaken.
In a hearing on 17 April, the cyclist, Nicolette Tan Shi-en, pleaded guilty to intentionally harassing the driver, Elaine Michele Ow. She was also charged with obstructing the road.
Strangely, the 32-year-old Tan is a Singaporean lawyer, so you’d think she would know about the consequences of obstructing a car and then jumping onto the hood.
Ah, you see, there actually could be a good reason for that.
Tan’s defence lawyer, Mr Sanjiv, argued that she had been diagnosed with a brain tumour, which could have influenced her reckless behaviour shown in the video.
Mr Sanjiv claimed that the location of the tumour on the left frontal area of the brain could lead to impairment of judgement and personality changes. This led the judge to allow the defence to look into the causal link between the tumour and her offending behaviour.
On 10 July, Mr Sanjiv confirmed that there was no link found between the two.
I guess there wasn’t a good reason for that.
The prosecution sought a short detention order (SDO), where an offender would be detained in prison for a maximum of 14 days. After serving it, the offence will be removed from her criminal record.
The judge decided to adjourn sentencing to September.
Ow, the driver involved, did not get away scot-free either. She pleaded guilty to one count of a rash act endangering Tan’s safety.
It turns out you’re not allowed to drive off down the road with someone clinging to the hood of your car and screaming for dear life. Who knew?
The prosecution asked for an SDO and a driving ban for Ow.