SINGAPORE — When retiree Mohamed Kassim Yusoff learnt of a multi-vehicle accident involving his son-in-law in Tampines on Monday (April 22), he did not know that his precious granddaughter was also in the car. 

It was only at Changi General Hospital when visiting his son-in-law Muhammad Azril Mahmood that the doctor attending to him dropped the “bombshell” that broke his heart.

He found out that 17-year-old Afifah Munirah Muhammad Azril was also involved in the accident, and she had not made it.

“I was stunned. When did Afifah come in (to this)?” said Mr Kassim, 71, with tears welling in his eyes. 

Eight people were taken to hospital after the accident at the junction of Tampines Avenue 1 and Tampines Avenue 4 on Monday morning. Afifah and a 57-year-old woman, both unconscious, were among the eight but died in hospital.

Afifah's death came just a day after Mr Kassim had met her at their weekly family gathering on Sunday, and only three months after they had celebrated their birthdays — which both fall in January — together.

Mr Kassim spoke to TODAY on Tuesday morning outside Afifah’s family home in Pasir Ris where more than 100 family and friends gathered to bid their final farewell to the Temasek Junior College student. 

“She’s very dedicated to what she’s doing… Her favourite subject was science, and she wanted badly to be a doctor,” said Mr Kassim, who said he was very close to the teen.

The oldest of three siblings, Afifah was described by friends and family as a dedicated and intelligent student with an infectious personality who always put her schoolwork first.

When it came to holidays and family hangouts, these plans had to align with the timetable she had made for herself. 

“We can go anywhere in the world — but if she says she’s got to study, (then) she’s got to study,” said Mr Kassim. 

Indeed, the former Cedar Girls’ Secondary School student had always set high expectations for herself. 

When Afifah got her GCE O-Level results last year, her grand uncle, 70-year-old retiree Mydin Mohamed, said that she had been in tears despite doing well — as she had not made the cut-off point for junior colleges she had aimed for. 

“She strives to work hard, she really goes for it… We miss her,” said Mr Mydin, who described Afifah as a diligent and disciplined “high achiever”. 

Afifah’s grandfather also felt that she was mature beyond her years, and that it was evident even in her preschool days, where she preferred to speak to her teachers.

“The teachers would ask: ‘Why don’t you play with your friends?’, and (she would say): ‘They’re like babies!’,” he said.

“She’s very mature. I expected her to do good things in life.” 

In her short-lived junior college days, Afifah was also actively involved in the Malay Cultural Society. Ms Elina Abdul Rashid, the club’s teacher-in-charge at Temasek JC, said Afifah was enthusiastic and positive.

“Afifah was very passionate about Malay culture and whenever she is around, peers always seem to be happy as she always brings with her much laughter and happiness,” Ms Elina said in a post on Temasek JC’s Facebook page on Tuesday morning.

WHAT HAPPENED

On Monday, Mr Azril, who is in his late 40s, had dropped off his wife for work at Park View Primary School, before taking one of Afifah’s younger sisters to school at Pasir Ris Crest Secondary School.

Mr Azril had then intended to drop Afifah off at Temasek Polytechnic, where she was due to participate in a cross-country event organised by her school, before the accident occurred at around 7am. 

Mr Kassim said that Afifah usually sits in the front passenger seat of the car but, for whatever reason, did not that day. 

“If she sat in front with the seat belt, probably the injury would be lesser and she can survive. That very day she chose to sit behind. I don’t know why.”

Just moments after the incident, 45-year-old petroleum technician Muhammad Rosman Abdul Razak found himself face-to-face with a dazed Mr Azril, who was stuck in the driver’s seat of his overturned vehicle.

Speaking to reporters at the void deck underneath Afifah’s home after offering his condolences to the teen's mother, Mr Rosman said he was on his way to drop his 16-year-old daughter off at Tampines Secondary School on Monday, and was about two cars behind Mr Azril’s when the incident happened “directly in front of our eyes”. 

He swiftly parked his car and rushed on to the scene to find Mr Azril just about regaining consciousness. 

Mr Rosman had asked him about his well-being and if he could feel his arms and legs, but said Mr Azril kept asking him to check on his daughter instead.

“My daughter, my daughter is at the back,” Mr Rosman recounted Mr Azril as saying. 

Unable to see anyone in the back of the car, Mr Rosman focused his efforts on pulling Mr Azril out of the vehicle and eventually succeeded. Moments later, he found Afifah under some pieces of debris.

“Unfortunately I couldn’t save her, she was already gasping for air and there was blood in her mouth.” 

Although he tried to talk to her constantly, Afifah was not able to respond to Mr Rosman, who is trained in providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

“I was very helpless, because I am trained in CPR and I couldn’t do it," he said, explaining that he might have made her predicament worse if he had done so.

According to family members, Mr Azril is currently under observation with kidney and spine related injuries, and is conscious in the hospital.

‘JOY, OPTIMISM STOLEN FROM US’

Staff and alumni members and even juniors at Cedar Girls’ Secondary School are saddened by Afifah’s death, said the school.

Dr Nuraini Ismail, year head at Cedar Girls’, told TODAY that former students reached out to her as well as to each other on Monday night to share the sad news and to “pacify each other”. 

Some of Afifah’s juniors studying in Cedar Girls’ were also “very affected”, as she was supposed to return to the school next week to teach them some basic Girls’ Guides drills.

The school said they were reaching out to the students to lend support and are encouraging them to write letters as an avenue to express their feelings.

“One of them actually wrote saying: ‘You (Afifah) promised to see me next week, but things just sometimes don't happen’.”

Dr Nuraini, who was Afifah’s year head during the first two years in Cedar Girls’ and also her Higher Mother Tongue teacher, also described her as a “very respectful” student.

She remembers fondly her former student’s “infectious” laughter and positivity, which the teacher credited as one of the factors that led to Afifah’s batchmates being “particularly close” to one another.

Dr Nuraini also recalled how Afifah had really wanted to enter a junior college and become a student councillor. Her former teachers were “very happy” for her when she achieved those dreams, though they are now short-lived.

“We all feel that there's so much joy and optimism and positivity and potential (in Afifah) that has been stolen from us.”