Apr 12, 2011
Man run over by MRT train was an epileptic
By Elena Chong
Police officers gathering evidence after a man, later identified as Lee Teck Meng, was hit by a train at Queenstown MRT on Nov 29, 2010. -- ST PHOTO: CHONG ZI LIANG
A MAN who had been suffering from epilepsy since he was eight, died when he fell onto the MRT track and was run over by a west-bound train in November 2010.
A coroner's court found that Mr Lee Teck Meng, unemployed, had accidentally fallen onto the railway tracks at Queenstown MRT station at Commonwealth Avenue on Nov 29, 2010.
CCTV footage of the MRT platform showed the 41-year-old squatting alone next to the tail wall at about 8pm. Subsequently, he stood up and walked in an unsteady manner towards the edge of the platform and squatted at the edge of the platform.
The court heard that he leaned his body against a stationary train which had pulled up at 8.09pm. A minute later as the train left the station, he lost his balance and fell onto the MRT track.
He was seen trying to sit up but could not. He lay on his back with his head resting on the inner track when another train pulled up and hit him. According to his elder brother, he had a history of drug abuse. After his release from prison for drug possession in the mid-1990s, he had stayed clean.
But for the past three years, he was observed to return home with a 'dazed' look on his face, suggesting that he had taken drugs. Low amounts of ethanol and midazolam, a sedative, were found in his blood, the court heard.
