SINGAPORE: Residents living in the River Valley area have called for speed humps and other safety measures to be installed along Institution Hill, a 150m stretch of road, after a four-year-old girl died in a traffic accident.
Zara Mei Orlic was walking home from school with her two-year-old sister and her family’s Indonesian domestic worker Lily at about 5pm last Tuesday (Jan 23) when a car turning in from a street corner knocked her down.
TODAY spoke with 11 residents in the area who said that the stretch can sometimes be dangerous because there is a bend and a “steep” incline, where vehicles might travel fast.
Ms Tianne Wu, a 38-year-old research manager who is a resident at Aspen Heights condominium, said that she “just wrote to the Land Transport Authority”, expressing her hope that the area would be more “pedestrian safe”.
“I never thought that much about it, but it is pretty dangerous because (drivers) are not mindful when pedestrians are crossing the road.”
She had observed that once residents exited the condominium in their cars, they would “zoom” downhill.
“(LTA) can add things like a zebra crossing or speed bumps,” she added.
A small condominium complex, Aspen LinQ, with 18 units, as well as a much bigger complex, Aspen Heights, with 606 units, sit on Institution Hill.
At the foot of the road is the campus of Dimensions International College, an international school.
When TODAY visited Institution Hill on Monday, there were construction works happening towards the end of the cul-de-sac, with heavy vehicles such as trucks and lorries constantly going up and down the hill.
Media reports on the accident said that domestic worker Lily was saddled with school bags and holding on to the hand of Zara’s younger sister when Zara was hit.
The girls’ father, Dr Nick Orlic, a senior lecturer at Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Business School, said that he was at home when he received a call from his maid about the accident and he had rushed to the scene.
Ms Anusha Charles, a 27-year-old art teacher who holds classes at Aspen Heights and has taught Zara in several classes, said: “There’s no pedestrian crossing over here. It’s just a road.
“I don’t think cars go as slowly as they should go.”
The police said that a 40-year-old woman has been arrested under suspicion of careless driving causing death.