Tree falls on Mercedes in Tiong Bahru, driver taken to hospital: Road cleared after 4½ hours

One motorist was taken to hospital after a tree fell on his Mercedes-Benz at Tiong Bahru Road on Friday (March 3), making the road impassable.

Stomper Watson and Denise shared photos of the massive tree lying across the road.

SBS Transit said on its social media that bus services 5, 16, 33/33A, 63, 851, 122, 123/123M and 195/195A were diverted with five bus stops skipped.

In response to a Stomp query, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it received a call for assistance at about 5.35pm and one person was taken to Singapore General Hospital.

MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC Indranee Rajah said about the incident on Facebook on Friday: "Was at Parliament this evening when I was informed by a resident at around 5.30pm that a large tree had fallen across Tiong Bahru Road.

"Immediately alerted NParks and HDB while the Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru constituency office who had also been alerted by residents contacted the other agencies.

"The police arrived first and quickly set about with crowd control. Within half an hour, the NParks team had arrived and started work on clearing the tree.

"A car was badly damaged but understand that the driver did not sustain serious injury though he must have been very shocked. The SCDF ambulance also arrived quickly and attended to him and brought him to hospital.

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"Boon Tiong Residents' Commitee members were on the ground, providing assistance and distributing water to the bus drivers who were stranded by the blocked road.

"At 9.50pm – four and a half hours from the time the tree fell – the tree was cleared and the roads were open again, while Land Transport Authority continued the repair work to the linkway that was also damaged by the fallen tree."

She added that the other trees in the area would be checked the next day as a precautionary measure.