Letter submission
Another case of road rage caught on video
by onlinecitizen
in Current Affairs
By Terry Xu
Mr Tan, (not his real name) was at Centrepoint on Good Friday, last week when he met with a very unpleasant incident involving a middle aged Caucasian man at the shopping mall's carpark.
At about 7.10pm when Mr Tan entered the Centrepoint Car Park, he noticed a car (Black Audi, SGC8430R) behind him in the left lane while driving on the right lane of the carpark towards the basement. However to reasons unknown to Mr Tan, the driver of the black Audi seemed to be annoyed by him as the driver horned loudly several times for an extended period.
After reascertaining that he was in the correct lane, he then proceeded to the basement. Mr Tan said that after proceeding down the ramp, the black Audi accelerated down the ramp as well and tailgated his car in the carpark.
Mr Tan then managed to find a lot and proceeded to enter the parking lot. At this time, the car stopped alongside his car as it was still within the access lane of the car park.
The driver, a western Caucasian looking man in his 50s got out of the car, opened his driver's side door and started yelling at him, demanding an apology from him.
Video attached for a recording of this happening. (No earlier recording was made of the incident until the driver came over to open the door of the car)
Mr Tan refused to abide to the demand as he felt that he is not in the wrong. He added that the driver might have then realised that he was being recorded on video, and therefore tried to go to the passenger side door to open it (Which was then locked). Failing to open the door, the driver spoke vulgarities at the two and gave a hard tap to the car window before driving away from the scene.
When asked if Mr Tan can explain why the other driver was so angry and why was the man able to open the car door, he said,
"We totally did not expect him to do that. Hence doors weren't locked.
No, he definitely did not signal. His lane is meant to turn to a ramp leading upstairs. My lane is meant to turn to basement.
He wanted to turn to basement and was behind our car in the wrong lane.
When I turned, he horned numerous times. I'm a paranoid driver so I stopped and checked if I was in the wrong lane. I wasn't. I'm sure of that. Then I continued
He still wasn't happy and tailgated me in the carpark until I found a lot, then the altercation took place"
Feeling intimidated and worried for his car, Mr Tan went to the Centrepoint mall security who then advised for him to move the car and make a police report.
Police report made for the incident
When Mr Tan made the police report, the police took the details of the incident down but said it is a civil case. The police advised him that he would have to take it up with a magistrate if he was keen on pursuing the case further. There was no follow up on the issue by the police but Mr Tan felt that the incident should have been considered as an act of criminal intimidation.
He added, "Him punching the car etc not enough to say intimidation? To be fair I don't actually want the guy jailed or anything." "Seriously he should get a warning at least."
He further related to the xenophobia trend that locals are facing, losing community spirit and caring values. "I'm not xenophobic. And still think that this is just a case of one bad egg"
"But the increase of foreign appearing people behaving badly in the media is bound to affect the mindsets of the natives."
This story has been sent to the police for further comments.
*Update
The police replied and wrote,
We regret to inform you that the Police do not provide views based on examples of scenarios.
Please rest assured that the Police have taken cognizance of your feedback. We have alerted the relevant Police department for their attention. We would also like to take this opportunity to share that as all information relating to investigations is classified as privileged and confidential, and we acknowledge that you are not an involved party in the case, we regret that we would not be able to provide any update to you on our findings.
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