77-year-old man dies after being run over by taxi outside Ikea Alexandra

Daniel Burgess
The New Paper
Sep 12, 2019

An elderly man was run over by a taxi outside Ikea's Alexandra branch and died in hospital over the weekend.

At 7.35pm on Saturday, the police were alerted to an accident involving a taxi and a pedestrian on Alexandra Road towards Telok Blangah Road.

A police spokesman told The New Paper yesterday that the pedestrian, a 77-year-old man, was conscious when he was taken to the National University Hospital.

But he succumbed to his injuries at the hospital on Sunday. Police investigations are ongoing.

Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday that the man was Mr Oh Ah Lek, and his widow spoke to its reporter at the funeral on Tuesday.

The 76-year-old woman told Wanbao that she and her son were crossing the intersection at the entrance, and her husband was behind them.

A taxi drove out of the Ikea drop-off point to enter the main road and she then heard a bang.

She turned around to see her husband trapped beneath the car.

She added that the driver did not realise what had happened and their son had to hit the car body to alert him. Others at the scene helped call for an ambulance.

She said her husband, who used to be a taxi driver himself, suffered internal bleeding and underwent emergency surgery.

She went home to rest after the surgery, but the hospital later called to inform her that his condition had worsened and he had to undergo two more operations.

She said her husband died at 3am, more than seven hours after the incident, because of heart failure from blood loss.

She hopes other witnesses will contact the police to assist in investigations.

In a statement to TNP yesterday, an Ikea spokesman said it had provided help to the authorities in the investigations and would continue to do so.

The spokesman said: "The Ikea family is aware and saddened by this unfortunate incident and would like to convey our deepest condolences to the victim's family."