Vinod Kumar was driving his yellow Suzuki Swift along Corporation Road on 31st of August at 1.11pm, when he came into contact with another driver whom he claims tried to aggressively cut into his lane.
Vinod beeped his horn in return, to warn the driver of any impending collision. The other driver, in a black SUV, who may have taking the horn as a personal slight, motioned for Vinod to get down from his vehicle, Vinod says.
At the upcoming traffic light, Vinod got down from his car and approached the black SUV, whose driver alighted after him. Just as Vinod rounds the left rear corner of the black SUV, it’s driver comes around and there is a very brief millisecond of face-to-face confrontation before Vinod is punched in the face.
The black SUV’s driver returns to his drivers seat, drives forward about two car lengths, where he stops due to traffic in front of him. By this time, Vinod has returned to to black SUV on foot, with his phone that he had to retrieve from his yellow Swift and begins to take photos for documentation. The video cuts out just as a few words are exchanged between the two drivers, after the black SUV driver opens his car door.
The whole incident did not last longer than a minute, all while the traffic lights remained red and their lanes were at a standstill.
The viral video has since garnered over 300,000 views and 946 comments on our ROADS.sg’s Facebook page.
Public reactions ranged from the extremely supportive:
To blaming Vinod for getting out of his vehicle:
However, one of the more common reactions is this statement:
The ROADS.sg team found Vinod after he made a comment on the same Facebook video, saying it was him driving the yellow Swift.
His comment: “He called me out and within 2 secs the swing happened. I’m was with my 2 little ones. No point retaliating and showing my kids to do the wrong thing. Anyways police are on the case.”
Via a quick online interview, Vinod told us that, “When I asked him to pull over he refused and rush to his car. I need to at least take evidence for what happened or else he will go Scot free. That is why I went to my car to take my phone.”
Also, Vinod said that he is “happy for all the support” but also wanted to deny any sentiment he had “stepped out ready for a fight”.
He does not agree with the sentiment that he was looking for a fight as he stepped out of his vehicle. “This is Singapore and violence is not the way to settle.”
“Doesn’t mean you step out to talk and stand your ground means you are also allowed to display violence,” Vinod says.
The ROADS.sg team did their best attempts at finding the other driver to get his side of the story, but as of the day of this article printing, had not been able to contact the man.
The Singapore Police Force are currently pursuing an investigation into the incident.
In Vinod’s case, it would be a civil suit, should he choose to file one. He assures ROADS.sg that he is “doing much better” since the incident over a week ago.
