The very recent nicoll highway collapse is testament to a significant revelation I made not too long ago; singapore is not really the safe haven I used to think it was. The incident, which occurred around 4pm yesterday, has claimed the life of one man so far and injured three others. Three people are still missing and the prospects of finding them alive are not very bright.
I can really empathize with the relatives of the missing personnel; it is certainly not easy to hold on to even a glimmer of hope that your loved one might be able to survive the terrible wreckage. (By the way, I spotted the actress who played Mimi in the local sitcom Oh, Carol! amongst the small crowd at the holding area for relatives, looking so distraught... how sad! )
It seems that April is really an eventful month for singaporeans. We've hardly recovered from the widespread blackout last week and another "event" had to occur, only this time, lives are at stake. An explosion, or a series of explosions, were suspected to have caused the steel supports over the tunnel of the Circle Line site to give way and subsequently, the whole area caved in, including the highway itself. However, I wonder; could this tragedy have been averted somehow? Firstly, it is a well-known fact that most of Nicoll highway was built over reclaimed land way back in the 1950s. Perhaps reclaimed soil just isnt sturdy enough to support the heavy subterranean work being done in that area. Moreover, that section of the Circle Line was said to be one of the deepest that the engineers had to construct since it had to run underneath the Singapore river. Wouldnt this have only aggravated the already "weak" soil in that plot of land?
Nevertheless, these are only my personal speculations and it has been announced today that a panel of experts will be established to investigate the actual cause of the incident. At the end of the day, the root of the matter is not as significant as the inconvenience the collapse has caused on the thousands of commuters who use the highway as a link from the east to the city area of Singapore. Nor is it as significant as the lives of the people still trapped beneath the rubble... God bless.
