A 36-year-old man was arrested for criminal trespass and a rash act causing hurt after he drove his car into the sea in Sentosa Cove, Singapore on Friday, along with a Sentosa ranger. The police said that the ranger was also involved in a traffic accident with him.
Ang Chee Boon, who runs a boat chartering company, said that he was on a boat with his skipper when they heard a siren and saw the accident. "Suddenly, we heard a very loud noise and we saw the car going through the barriers," the 56-year-old owner told The Straits Times.
"It just went through and the car was in the sea. The man didn't even try to escape," he added. He also said that he saw two rangers on motorcycles pursuing the white Toyota car.
The police said in a statement that they were informed about a traffic accident involving a car and a Sentosa ranger in Sentosa at around 2.08 pm. They added that the driver was rescued from the car and was conscious when he was taken to Singapore General Hospital. The Sentosa ranger, who suffered minor injuries, was also taken to SGH.
Ang said that a man, who was on another nearby yacht, jumped into the sea and rescued the man. "When we saw the car start to sink, we prepared our diving gear," he said. "But the man was very fast, he was very good."
A spokesman for Sentosa Development Corporation said that Sentosa rangers attended to the incident about 2 pm. "The Singapore Police Force, Police Coast Guard and Singapore Civil Defence Force were immediately activated, and the driver has been rescued," the spokesman told The Straits Times.
The police said that the investigations are going on.
David Roberts, who was on the other side of the marina said: "I saw the motorbikes racing by with their sirens." The super yacht captain added: "I looked to see what was going on and saw the car floating in the water."
Witnessing such an incident, Roberts stripped down and swam across to where the car was. "By then, the car had already sunk to the bottom," he said. "I tried to open the doors but I couldn't, so I asked the security guys to give me a rock or something to break one of the windows."
However, he eventually managed to reach in through a small opening in one of the windows and unbuckle the man's seat belt. Roberts also managed to break one of the windows and rescued the man, in "a couple of minutes".
He got oxygen from one of the nearby boats and gave the man. Roberts added that the man was conscious when he first got out of the water, but began slipping in and out of consciousness.
