Handbag thrown out of car on CTE leads to five-vehicle pile-up; no one injured, 21-year-old woman arrested

SINGAPORE — A 21-year-old woman was arrested after her action of throwing a handbag from the vehicle she was in led to a five car pile-up on the Central Expressway (CTE) on Sunday (Jan 12).

Responding to TODAY’s queries on Tuesday, the Singapore Police Force said that it was alerted to the accident involving the five cars at around 5pm that day.

The police said that no injuries were reported, and the female passenger was arrested under Section 7 of the Mental Health Act, which empowers the police to arrest any person “believed to be dangerous to himself or other persons and such danger is reasonably suspected to be attributable to a mental disorder”.

Dashcam footage of the incident — which was posted on Chinese language news portal 8World News — shows a champagne-coloured Hyundai cruising on the expressway with its left passenger door ajar.

A red handbag was then thrown onto the tarmac, with its content spilling out.

An eyewitness who spoke to 8World News said that the four cars following behind him had to engage their emergency brakes, but could not avoid crashing into one another, resulting in the pile-up.

The passenger later got out of the car and began shouting at the driver, the eyewitness said. The passenger was believed to be the driver’s daughter, 8Worlds News reported.

Police investigations are ongoing.