Chee Soon Juan calls for more checks to avoid trees falling on cars or people

Singapore — Secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) Chee Soon Juan has called for more checks, especially on older trees.

Explaining that residents alerted him to a tree that came crashing down on a trailer in Bukit Batok, Dr Chee wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday (Apr 20) that the Government should step up its checks.

Dr Chee added that he was not sure if anyone was injured but said, “Such incidents are not a rare occurrence – injuries and fatalities have taken place many times.”

He also urged the Government to compensate victims or their families where warranted.

“Ordinary S’poreans find it hard to sustain the financial difficulties when such calamity befall them. I understand these events are seldom covered by insurance”, Dr Chee wrote.

Earlier this year, a woman was killed after a tree fell on her in Marsiling Park on Feb 18. Dr Leong Chee Chiew, commissioner of parks and recreation at NParks, said the 20m-tall Araucaria excelsa tree, which had a girth of 1.3 metres, was about 20 years old and was found to be healthy when it was last inspected in April 2020. /TISG