Flashing headlights spark road rage
Parents-in-law of ex-national player injured in alleged attack by pedestrian after mother-in-law flashed headlights at crossing pedestrian. -ST
Sujin Thomas
Wed, Apr 09, 2008
The Straits Times
WHEN the parents-in-law of former national football team skipper Aide Iskandar left their flat on Saturday night, they thought they were going on a routine trip to their chicken rice stall.
What the elderly couple got instead was a hefty serving of road rage that saw them beaten up and shoved to the ground by a pedestrian.
It all started when Madam Rubiyah Md Noor and her husband, Mr Mohamed Taib Haji Zhori, left home for Marine Parade in their Mitsubishi station wagon at around 8.45pm.
Madam Rubiyah, 58, said she saw a man about to cross a small road near their home in Rivervale Walk, so she flashed her headlights.
That was enough to spark a chain of events that has left her with chest pain, a broken wrist and a fractured foot - injuries that will keep her from work for at least a month.
After she did the headlight flicker, the man blocked the couple's vehicle with outstretched arms, and cursed them in Malay.
Mr Mohamed, 67, told The Straits Times that the man then started to egg them on, saying: 'Knock me down. You think you have a big car?'
The couple said he appeared to be in his late 40s, was tanned and had short hair. He was wearing a white T-shirt and shorts.
As they drove by, the man kicked the side of their car.
Madam Rubiyah said she couldn't take the abuse any more so she stopped the vehicle and got out.
It was then that the man shoved her to the ground, breaking her foot, she said.
Not realising how badly hurt she was, she got up, only to be pushed over again. This time, she broke her wrist.
Mr Mohamed got out of the car to intervene, but he too was pushed over. He landed on top of his wife.
Passers-by shouted at the man, who walked away with a woman.
'I told him I was going to call the police and he just walked off. If he was a gentleman, he would have stayed,' said Mr Mohamed in his executive maisonette yesterday.
He then tailed the couple to a lift landing on the seventh storey of Block 110.
There, the man grabbed his neck and began to punch him. Another man, who was in the lift, ran away after he was threatened.
The enraged pedestrian let MrMohamed go after his female companion pulled him away. Mr Mohamed said he feared for his life.
Aide, who quit the national team last November and now plays for Geylang United, said: 'This kind of dispute might be common, but when you beat up an elderly person, that is unacceptable.'
A police spokesman told The Straits Times that they are investigating the incident.
In hindsight, Madam Rubiyah said: 'If I had known he was going to be so violent, I wouldn't have stopped the car.'
information from http://www.asiaone.com/print/News/The+Straits+Times/Story/A1Story20080409-58796.html
Parents-in-law of ex-national player injured in alleged attack by pedestrian after mother-in-law flashed headlights at crossing pedestrian. -ST
Sujin Thomas
Wed, Apr 09, 2008
The Straits Times
WHEN the parents-in-law of former national football team skipper Aide Iskandar left their flat on Saturday night, they thought they were going on a routine trip to their chicken rice stall.
What the elderly couple got instead was a hefty serving of road rage that saw them beaten up and shoved to the ground by a pedestrian.
It all started when Madam Rubiyah Md Noor and her husband, Mr Mohamed Taib Haji Zhori, left home for Marine Parade in their Mitsubishi station wagon at around 8.45pm.
Madam Rubiyah, 58, said she saw a man about to cross a small road near their home in Rivervale Walk, so she flashed her headlights.
That was enough to spark a chain of events that has left her with chest pain, a broken wrist and a fractured foot - injuries that will keep her from work for at least a month.
After she did the headlight flicker, the man blocked the couple's vehicle with outstretched arms, and cursed them in Malay.
Mr Mohamed, 67, told The Straits Times that the man then started to egg them on, saying: 'Knock me down. You think you have a big car?'
The couple said he appeared to be in his late 40s, was tanned and had short hair. He was wearing a white T-shirt and shorts.
As they drove by, the man kicked the side of their car.
Madam Rubiyah said she couldn't take the abuse any more so she stopped the vehicle and got out.
It was then that the man shoved her to the ground, breaking her foot, she said.
Not realising how badly hurt she was, she got up, only to be pushed over again. This time, she broke her wrist.
Mr Mohamed got out of the car to intervene, but he too was pushed over. He landed on top of his wife.
Passers-by shouted at the man, who walked away with a woman.
'I told him I was going to call the police and he just walked off. If he was a gentleman, he would have stayed,' said Mr Mohamed in his executive maisonette yesterday.
He then tailed the couple to a lift landing on the seventh storey of Block 110.
There, the man grabbed his neck and began to punch him. Another man, who was in the lift, ran away after he was threatened.
The enraged pedestrian let MrMohamed go after his female companion pulled him away. Mr Mohamed said he feared for his life.
Aide, who quit the national team last November and now plays for Geylang United, said: 'This kind of dispute might be common, but when you beat up an elderly person, that is unacceptable.'
A police spokesman told The Straits Times that they are investigating the incident.
In hindsight, Madam Rubiyah said: 'If I had known he was going to be so violent, I wouldn't have stopped the car.'
information from http://www.asiaone.com/print/News/The+Straits+Times/Story/A1Story20080409-58796.html