The Electric New Paper :
Bus driver says "I was afraid to wake him up.
SIX times, he spotted the stationary red taxi from Trans-Cab as he drove back to his HDB block.
By Celine Lim
08 December 2006
SIX times, he spotted the stationary red taxi from Trans-Cab as he drove back to his HDB block.
But schoolbus driver Teh Puay Khoon, 50, thought nothing of it each time he returned and left his home between rounds early yesterday morning.
After all, there was an 'On Call' sign lit up and the engine was running.
Alarm bells did not go off even when the taxi remained parked in the cargo bay of the HDB block at Hougang Street 91 after several hours.
Mr Teh said in Mandarin: 'I saw the driver lying down in his taxi and thought he was sleeping. It is quite common for cabbies to take naps in their taxis.
'I didn't want to knock on his window in case I get scolded for waking him up.'
RECLINING POSITION
He had noticed the cabby lying back, with the driver's seat in a reclining position, the second time he drove past, around 7.30am.
That - and the 'On Call' sign - was perhaps why other passer-bys did not look in on the taxi for more than six hours.
So no one noticed when cabby Yeo Thian Poh started foaming at the mouth, some time between 6.40am and 1.25pm.
As his life ebbed away, no one came to his help.
But by late morning, the 68-year-old's handphone was ringing non-stop.
Mr Yeo worked the night shift and was supposed to pass the taxi to his relief driver by 10am in Tampines.
The driver, who wanted to be known only as Mr Wang, 62, said in Mandarin: 'He's usually very punctual so I didn't mind waiting a while.
'When he didn't show up, I called him many times but got no answer. The taxi company could not contact him either.'
A worried Mr Wang then went to a police station to report his friend's disappearance.
Mr Yeo's 13-year-old daughter, Hui Ting, was also wondering why her father was taking so long to walk home from the next block, where he leaves the taxi.
She called her mother, Madam Chew Eng Mui, 49, a sales assistant who was at work at Parkway Parade.
But Madam Chew's calls to her husband went unanswered.
Meanwhile, something about the red taxi did not feel right to Mr Teh.
He told his wife and daughter about it over breakfast before driving them to the mall.
After shopping at the mall, mother and daughter took a bus home and decided to look in the window when they saw the red taxi still there at 1.25pm.
'I got a shock when I saw white foam from his mouth. I immediately called the police,' said Mrs Teh, 46, a housewife.
A police spokesman said the taxi driver was pronounced dead at 1.35pm. There were no visible signs of injury. The police are investigating it as a case of unnatural death.
Half an hour later, Madam Chew got a call from the police at work and learnt of her husband's death.
Stunned, she went home for Hui Ting before taking a taxi to Hougang to identify the body.
While her daughter brushed away her tears with the back of her hand, Madam Chew remained calm as the police officers spoke to her.
It was only when the undertakers removed her husband's body from the taxi that she broke down in tears.
Both of them were initially too upset to speak to reporters.
But later, at their Tampines three-room flat, Madam Chew said in Mandarin: 'It was too sudden, I find it hard to accept his death.
'Our daughter is still young and I'd hoped he'd stay around longer to watch her grow up.'
She suspects that her husband, who was on medication for heart problems, died from a heart attack.
PAY-CUT
But she said that he did not mention feeling unwell the night before when the family had dinner together.
She said: 'Now that he's gone, I'm worried that there'll be no one to look after Hui Ting in the day when I'm at work.'
'At her age, it's easy to be led astray if she mixes with the wrong company.'
Madam Chew said her husband used to cook dinner for the family every night.
She is thinking of quitting her 8.30am to 7pm, $1,300 sales job for something with shorter hours, like a cleaning job.
She said: 'Our flat is fully paid for so we're okay financially.
'I don't mind taking a pay cut to be there for Hui Ting.'
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