SMRT can seek help from poluce and SCDF during emergencies

SMRT can seek help from police and SCDF during emergencies: Lui Tuck Yew

In Saw Phaik Hwa’s previous interview, she said that the operator could not call for help from external agencies in a major rail incident, hence causing long delay during the breakdown in December last year. However, Lui Tuck Yew disagreed with her sentence and said that SMRT can seek help from police and SCDF during emergencies It was the first major disruption that had occurred in Singapore and it has caused much anxiety and inconvenience to many Singaporeans at that point of time as no one would have thought that this would happen to the MRT of Singapore, which everyone has taken granted for. If Miss Saw had called the police, the disruption and delays would not be too serious as they would help to control the flow of traffic and could have quicker access to passengers stranded in MRT stations, the situation will not be as chaotic either. The breakdown of the MRT has indeed taken the whole nation aback.  The LTA said external agencies can be called in even for Level 3 incidents, which includes minor incident isolated to one or two stations.
chiewling


After reading this article, I felt Ms Saw was a little irresponsible. This MRT situation actually happened first time and lead to some rather bad handling of it. After reading a related article, "We had no power" i felt that what Ms Saw Phaik Hwa said was logical. She state that 45 minutes was too long however it was because it was a first time situation and there was totally no procedure to it. She then gave a car analogy, 'If your car stalls, what do you do? You don't call a tow truck straight away. You try and start the car.' and that was why it took 45 minutes. However many neitizens was very unreleased with this as when this took place, many was actually on the way to work and was angry that Ms Saw didn't called the police for help as it was not according to the protocol and thus many had to deal with this delay. Back to this article, Mr Lui actually pointed out that SMRT could have called for external help like the police if there was a fatality and also state that police could then helped redirect traffic so that stranded MRT passengers could have better access to the bridging bus services. 

Eudice


Having read through both articles, the MRT situation is a rather complex one. For this article, I felt that Ms Saw was daft to not have called in aid from the SCDF and Police during the major rail incident. It would have been much helpful if the traffic was managed by the police and the SCDF controlling the crowd during peak hour. However, after reading her interview in "We had no power", I cannot exactly blame her for not doing so. It was an unpredictable turn of events for SMRT when the trains could not move - it was the first of its kind. When it happened it could have been a moment of panic for Ms Saw and instead of asking directly for the Police and SCDF, she wanted to put matters into her own hands. She argued this as a human instinct reaction "If your car stalls, what do you do? You don't call a tow truck straight away. You try and start the car." Thus, in my opinion, amidst the major disorder and chaos of peak hour, I feel that she has a point in trying to put matters into her own hands instead of calling for aid. Looking back and talking about what she should have done does not do any help but generate further debate as I am confident she did her best at that moment. However, let bygones be bygones and I am sure for future incidents like this, the SMRT would definitely use the aid of the Police and SCDF to handle the matter more efficiently and effectively.
-Khairi