SINGAPORE – One person was killed and 16 others injured in an early morning bus accident on Feb 26 near the Tuas Checkpoint.

The crash took place at about 4.25am when a bus collided into a railing at 501 Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim, said the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

SCDF personnel found the bus against the side railing of a flyover when they arrived at the scene at around 5am.

Two women were also found at the foot of the flyover. SCDF’s paramedics said that one of the women had sustained serious injuries, while the other was pronounced dead at the scene.

The bus driver was found trapped in his seat and had to be rescued with a hydraulic equipment.

The police told TODAY that the injured were all aboard the bus when the accident happened, and that the deceased was 35-years-old.

The bus driver and 11 other bus passengers were sent to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital and the National University Hospital (NUH). The remaining four refused to be conveyed to the hospitals as they had only sustained minor injuries, said the SCDF.

Six of the injured passengers were hospitalised at Ng Teng Fong Hospital, said a hospital spokesperson in response to TODAY’s queries.

As of noon, five of them had been discharged and the remaining patient is in “stable condition”, the spokesperson added. 

TODAY understands that six passengers were sent to NUH, four of whom have been discharged since.

While the nationalities of the casualties and the cause of the accident are unknown, TODAY understands that the bus had a foreign licence plate.

Technology company HP told Channel NewsAsia that some of the passengers were its employees, but declined to give specifics or provide more details.

“Our thoughts are with those that were involved and are doing everything we can to provide assistance to affected employees. We are concurrently working with the authorities to get more information,” HP said in response to queries from Channel NewsAsia.

Police investigations are ongoing.

The accident brought traffic into Singapore to a standstill for two hours.

At around 5.20am, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) alerted motorists about the incident, saying in a Facebook post that buses and lorries were not able to enter the checkpoint at arrival.

At 6.05am, it said the heavy vehicle lane was blocked due to the accident and that buses and lorries were being diverted back to Malaysia.

The ICA said around 7am that traffic for arriving and departing cars and motorcycles was back to normal.

However, the heavy vehicle lane remained closed for another three hours and was only reopened at 10am, said the ICA in a final update to the public.