Four people, including SCDF officer, injured after taxi ‘explodes’ near Buona Vista MRT

SINGAPORE, April 30 — Four men, including a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officer, suffered minor burn injuries after a Trans-Cab taxi burst into flames and exploded near the Buona Vista MRT station this afternoon (April 30).

Police say they were first alerted to an accident between the taxi and a car at around 2.15pm. The taxi later caught on fire and exploded.

The accident between the two vehicles was the likely cause of the explosion, the police and the SCDF said citing preliminary investigations. Further investigations by the Police, SCDF and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) are ongoing.

TODAY understands the taxi was a compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle. A Trans-Cab spokesman told TODAY the taxi driver is a 48-year-old man, whose vehicle had been sent to the workshop two weeks ago for checks. Trans-Cab operates a fleet of CNG-powered taxis, which the company says are less polluting.

Commonwealth Avenue resident Judy Chu also told TODAY that the explosion was so loud that it could be heard from the 14^th floor of her building. 

Clothing shop owner Chen Ah Hua, who works at the nearby Holland Drive Market and Food Centre, added: “I thought it was a bomb and went into hiding.”

Mr Joe Liew, 56, a security supervisor at the National University of Singapore, told TODAY he was having a coffee at the coffeeshop opposite the incident when he heard an explosion at about 2.15pm. He said there was a second, louder, explosion, at around 2.20pm.

Retired medical doctor Edward Pang, 77, said he went to take a closer look when he heard the loud explosion and the plume of black smoke.

“Plenty of splinters big and small flew around the place like a bomb went off,” Mr Pang told TODAY.

He also saw a man bleeding from a cut on his hand. A woman in her 20s used her own scarf to help stop the bleeding.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) first tweeted about an accident along Commonwealth Avenue (towards Tuas) after Tanglin Halt Road at 2.30pm. About 15 minutes later, the LTA advised motorists that the road had been closed to traffic due to the accident. — TODAY