Instagram user @buckyhussain shared a close shave he and his 2-year-old daughter had, when they fell through a hole on a bridge at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and almost drowned to death.
Here is what he said
Ashley and I nearly died today.
We were in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve for some outdoors time after two days of CNY feasting. It was overcast and high tide, so we came prepared to not see much.
We weren’t prepared for a massive downpour.
No umbrellas, and obviously limited shelter in the reserve. We decided to carry the kids and brisk-walk/run our way out.
A few metres away from Hide 1E, there is a small bridge over a storm drain connecting the tidal ponds to Sungei Buloh Besar, which empties into the Johor Straits, and by now was torrential. Heavy rain and the high tide meant that the river was overflowing into the lower tidal ponds, and there was a good 3-5cm of water covering the bridge. Carrying Ashley, I waded through the water with @sealliously and Alex bringing up the rear.
I felt my whole body sink, and I was inhaling water.
We had fallen into a huge hole in the bridge; there was no signage, no barriers, and – with the flooding turning the water dark and muddy – no way to differentiate the hole from the remaining planks making up the bridge.
I had instinctively wrapped my arms around Ashley to protect the back of her neck and her spine and to stop her from floating away, but my legs were being swept away in the fast flowing water. I couldn’t feel the bottom, and if I let go we were going to be sucked under the bridge. Somehow I got an elbow up onto a side plank, then another elbow, then a foot. My backpack was at this point entirely underwater and my left leg was in danger of getting swept under the bridge, but Ashley was out of the water and that was what mattered. A group of 20-somethings passing by (THANK YOU ALL) helped pick up Ashley, and walked Alex, @sealliously and Ashley across the remaining planks in the bridge. I managed to get myself up and join them.
Thanks to a lifetime near the ocean and hundreds of hours of diving, I’ve been in enough bad currents, riptides, and sketchy situations to know that we were seconds away from drowning. Seconds.
That hole was a literal death trap and if a child, older person or even a less aware adult fell in, we would be reading about their loss in tomorrow’s front page news.
We stayed back a few minutes because there were so many families and young children passing the same way – we warned them and with the help of the 20-somethings even tried to patch the hole with some planks we found. No luck – the planks floated off. At this point I could see that the hole took up nearly a third of the bridge, and completely indiscernible from the existing bridge unless you were literally in the hole. In the heavy rain and if you’re paying attention to getting the f out, no way you’d see it.
Ashley and I are fine. Ashley hasn’t got a scratch on her and was laughing it off in the car: “Ashie go in the waterrrrr” she says. I’ve got some bad cuts and bruises, I think half the Sungei is in my stomach/ lungs, and I’m mentally rattled, but otherwise we’re ok. There were a few material losses:
- My Raybans went under and are probably in the Johor Straits now
- SM’s non-weather sealed camera and lens were in my backpack; both are now dead.
- The fall shredded my favourite pair of pants from REI, but
Ashley, Alex and @sealliously are safe and that is what matters.
We eventually left to the visitor centre because Alex was shivering from the cold. We both felt bad not being able to warn people but we also needed to let NParks know. This is where the real problem begins: there were no staff at the visitor centre. We waited for a long time, and decided this warranted more action. @sealliously called @myscdf via 995. We explained the situation to them and that there was actual danger to anyone walking via that path, and their response left me in shock:
“Do you need an emergency ambulance? (if not) I think you have the wrong number. This is the emergency ambulance. You should address this to the right agency and -“
I hung up, but not before telling the operator that if someone calls needing an ambulance or worse for this same issue I warned him about, he will regret his response.
@sealliously dialled @nparksbuzz’s Sungei Buloh number – after a wait that felt way too long, we got through to the other visitor centre at the newer extension, and the person – after confirming the issue is not at Eagle Point (which tells me there is a similar issue at Eagle Point) casually said ‘oh ok.. I’ll go take a look la”.
Four things I’ll call out:
@nparksbuzz need an emergency HQ hotline: since @myscdf want to pass the buck, get your shit together.
@nparksbuzz needs to staff up: having nobody at your counter during a public holiday – where demand is bound to be high – is a miss. Doing so in a park which is on the wilder side, with dangers beyond the f-ing hole in the bridge is bloody insane.
@myscdf need to rethink their protocols: Assuming some day don’t want to pass the buck and want to actually perform their duty of Civil Defence, there has to be a number we can dial for preventative action. “sorry wrong agency” is unacceptable for a civil defence force, and I don’t care what the manual says. We aren’t calling you to waste your time, we aren’t calling you to f spiders: there is a clear and present danger that the “relevant agency” are unable to address on account of them not f-ing being there.
Parents: Nobody will save your children but you: multiple parents and kids have near misses right after us because they weren’t expecting a f-ing hole. Who would? The point is – when something does happen, you need to be able to react, and react fast. Parents who are always on your phones or distracted around your kids, just don’t.
Updates: a friend at NParks confirmed that the hole has been fixed and staff are now on site. Thank you for the swift action!
Another update: scdf reached out and apologised for how the operator handled this incident.
