SCDF officer lauded for taking initiative during riot

SINGAPORE — With projectiles being hurled at the paramedics and some rioters trying to see or grab the body of Indian national Sakthivel Kumaravelu, Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Lieutenant (LTA) Tiffany Neo broke protocol during the Little India riot by putting the body in an ambulance.

Her common sense earned praise from the Committee of Inquiry yesterday, as LTA Neo — a key figure in the thick of the action as the riot unfolded — recounted how SCDF officers improvised and took the initiative amid the chaos, despite some of them being overawed by the situation.

LTA Neo added that she was disheartened and could not understand why the rescuers, including herself, were pelted with projectiles.

“It was quite confusing and a bit disheartening because we’re there to help ... I just couldn’t make sense of why they were throwing the projectiles,” she said.

Apart from directing the operation to extricate the body and move it to the ambulance, LTA Neo also returned to the bus that ran over Sakthivel and searched for the bus driver who was hiding in the aisle of the vehicle, covered by a rubbish bin.

Her team then escorted the bus driver and the bus timekeeper to safety by forming a circle around the pair as projectives were being hurled at them by the rioters.

A footage shown during the hearing showed LTA Neo looking for the bus driver in the vehicle and shielding him from projectiles with her hands after she found him.

In response to a question by the COI whether she considered abandoning her duties because she felt unsafe, LTA Neo said: “Definitely not ... we are trained to help these people. At no point did any of my men ask me shall we leave ... It was in all of our minds that we had to complete this mission first — help these people and then we can leave.”

LTA Neo said she arrived at the scene with five men, three of whom were full-time national servicemen who had never seen a dead body.

“They were unsure and did not know how to react to such a situation,” she said.

She added that the body was difficult to handle as it was “rather soft, probably due to the accident”.

She said that when she first saw the body, its skull was already crushed and she informed the operations room that the traffic accident victim was “dead on arrival”.

Under the protocol, SCDF officers should have handed the body over to the police after it was extricated.

“We wanted to move the body to a more secure location because there were a lot of people and police resources were stretched at the time,” LTA Neo said.

COI Chairman G Pannir Selvam praised her action: “Depending on the circumstances of (the) case, one must use common sense rather than the usual (procedure) ... We commend you for that.” Amanda Lee