Yesterday we brought you the sad news about a teen death in Toa Payoh, involving a 16-year-old youngster who plunged 12 storeys from an HDB flat sky garden.
Now, Ng Jun Hui’s devastated parents are desperately looking for answers for their boy’s death.
Teen death in Toa Payoh: He told his mum to keep his dinner…
The teenager’s devastated parents told The Straits Times that their boy’s last words to them were, “Don’t worry mummy, I will come back for dinner. Just keep the food for me.”
Mr Ritchie Ng, 53, and his wife Amy Wong, 47, now want to know how could a tragedy like this have happened.
On Tuesday (23 Jan), the boy was reportedly playing hide-and-seek with a former classmate of his in the sky garden at Block 79D in Toa Payoh Central. It was a little after midnight that he plummeted to the ground, a fall which killed him.
His classmate revealed that Ng had accidentally jumped over the wall of the sky garden, resulting in his death.
Could the teen’s death have been prevented?
They called their son that night…
According to reports, Mr Ng had asked his wife to call their son around 10pm that fateful night. This was to find out what time the boy was planning to come home as he had been out all day.
The teenager told his mum to keep his dinner for him, that he would be home soon. But it was only the police who knocked on their door later that night with the tragic news.
Mr Ng tells The Straits Times, “At about 1.30am, they kept knocking on the door and everybody was sleeping… I thought it was my son who had forgotten his keys. My whole mind was blank, and when my wife heard the news, she started shouting and crying.”
As more details about the teen death in Toa Payoh come in, it has also been revealed that the boy’s friend had messaged him around 10pm on Monday and asked him to come to the sky garden.
Mr Ng speaks of a game his son had mentioned before – like hide-and-seek – in which he and his friends would either hide, or stay still when their names were called. The boy’s friend who was with him at the sky garden when the tragedy occurred said they had been playing this game when he fell.
Could this teen death in Toa Payoh have been prevented?
While police are still investigating the incident, safety details of the sky garden are being questioned.
The garden links four blocks of HDB flats, and is surrounded by walls and railings, most of them which are around 1.6 metres tall. Some of the walls are lower.
The boy’s father, who is a Grab driver, is now appealing to police to share with him CCTV camera footage from the site, so he can see for himself what happened.
He also wants to visit the sky garden to see if it really has enough security measures to prevent accidents.
“Hopefully, this can help to save lives… It is really very painful to go through the whole thing,” said the shattered father.
He and Mrs Wong have two other children, daughters aged 14 and 17. They described their boy as kind, and that he would never hesitate to help his classmates at Guangyang Secondary School.
Jun Hui wanted to be a scientist. While he did not qualify for junior college, he had planned to pursue electrical engineering at the Institute of Technical Education with the hope of realising his dream.
We at theAsianparent hope his parents find the answers they seek, and extend our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family.
Also read: Dealing with the death of a child
Source: The Straits Times
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