Surging taxis, a budget alliance, and death by lifts and hanging

WE’VE passed a little milestone – 50,000 Facebook likes! Thank you, dear readers, for staying tuned and for being the reason we keep publishing.

While our popularity boost is great news, not so the cases of sudden unintended acceleration that LTA is investigating. Hyundai cabs are under the microscope after a rash of accidents involving these taxis that show the possibility of drivers not being in control of their vehicles, especially when in reverse gear.

But not all is negative for public transport (if you consider taxis that). Bus operator Tower Transit has given its staff a pay raise of 3.5 per cent even before it takes over 26 bus routes on May 29. Yes, they haven’t even started operations proper. SBS Transit says they will make an announcement soon, SMRT said it will stay “competitive”, and GoAhead couldn’t be reached for comment.

Eight regional budget airlines have banded together in an alliance called Value Alliance (which reminds one of how the budget terminal was named Budget Terminal) to cross-sell flights on each others’ websites – passengers will be able to book connecting flights on a single website from Tigerair, Scoot, Tigerair Australia, Cebu Pacific (Filipino), Jeju Air (South Korean), Vanilla Air (Japanese), and Nok Air and NokScoot (Thailand). For now, passengers will still have to pick up their bags at the connecting airport and check in again, but missed connections due to flight delays come with a guarantee of a seat on the next available flight at no extra cost.

Why the need to pakat? Two big names in budget flight are conspicuously missing – AirAsia and Jetstar. Mr Campbell Wilson, chief executive of Scoot, said that “the fact that you don’t see some airlines here is self-explanatory.” Get it?

And if this band of budgets want to kill off the competition, Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte wants to bring back the death penalty too. As a matter of fact, he wants some criminals to hang twice “until the head is severed form the body”. He singled out “robbery with homicide with rape” for “double the hanging”. He says he will also order police to “shoot to kill” those who resist arrest violently.

Can he bring back the death penalty? The Catholic Church and the Philippines’ human rights commission oppose such a move. However, Mr Duterte has the track record for it – as Mayor of Davao, he cleaned up crime (and is popular for it) by employing summary executions of some criminals.

And another casualty of defective lifts: Mr Lim Hang Chiang, 77, died after he fell off his mobility scooter and hit his head. He was reversing out of a lift that had stopped 15 cm above the floor of the lobby (ST says 15cm, CNA says 25cm). He was helped up by neighbours in the lift but died in hospital from severe brain hemorrhage. Investigations are ongoing at the lift at Blk 247, Pasir Ris Street 21.

Featured Image by Natassya Diana.

If you like this article, Like The Middle Ground‘s Facebook Page as well!

For breaking news, you can talk to us via email.

 

The post Surging taxis, a budget alliance, and death by lifts and hanging appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- The Middle Ground