Video leading up to fatal Tampines crash surfaces

Someone claiming to be the driver of the white Mercedes-Benz in a video showing the chain of events before the fatal accident in Tampines on April 22 has shared his side of the story online.

Two people were killed in the six-vehicle accident at the junction of Tampines Avenue 1 and Avenue 4.

In the video, a black Saab overtakes the Mercedes and bumps the latter's right front side as the Saab apparently tries to avoid a motorcycle along Bedok Reservoir Road.

The Mercedes momentarily mounts the kerb as the Saab continues driving forward to the junction.

Stomper Nazir alerted Stomp to another video taken two days earlier on April 20 showing the same Mercedes tailgating a motorcycle as they exit the Pan-Island Expressway on the slip road towards Simei Avenue.

The caption on the video claims that the car was trying to edge the motorcycle off the road.

A Redditor claiming to be the Mercedes driver posted in the SGExams sub-reddit on April 23: "I know a lot of people don't like what I do (as in tailgating, or speeding up to prevent the Saab driver from overtaking) but I want to clarify exactly what is happening because I see so many comments from people thinking it's much worse than it really is."

Referring to the earlier video that showed the Saab, he said: "I did it because my thought was to tell the Saab driver to slow down, hence I sped up while he was overtaking. Little did I know that he would attempt to forcibly edge me off the road, sideswiping my vehicle and forced me to mount a kerb.

"There were also allegations of me attempting to race with the Saab driver. I would like to point out that this is untrue. I had always been a safe driver and these two incidents are out of the normal circumstances."

In addressing the video involving the motorcycle, the Redditor said: "The motorcyclist was hogging the road, preventing me from going forward. Before this clip, I honked to signal to the motorcyclist for me to pass through. For reasons unknown, the motorcyclist did not move aside and continued to block the road.

"Please do also note that I had an emergency to attend to, hence I tried to ask him to move. I did not realise that he would modify the clip to suit his agenda of attacking me in relation to the Tampines accident.

"Sorry if this sounds like I'm trying to make excuses for my own actions. I could have communicated better to the motorcyclist, as well as not outright challenge the Saab driver on the road."

The post has since been removed from Reddit.