<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Prof dies in truck accident
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The truck driver (left), who is in his 50s, talking to a passer-by at the accident scene yesterday. The incident happened at 8.30pm while the professor was walking home. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A TRUCK hit an engineering professor on Tuesday evening, killing him.
Associate Professor Ooi Ban Leong of the National University of Singapore (NUS), who was taking his usual walk home from the campus, was then crossing the road at the junction of Commonwealth Avenue West and Clementi Road at 8.30pm.
He died at the scene from severe head injuries.
Prof Ooi, 41, who had taught at the university's department of electrical and computer engineering since 1996, specialised in microwave engineering, said an NUS spokesman.
He was said to have been popular with the students.
His father, 62-year-old security guard Ooi Chor Seng, was at the mortuary yesterday to claim his body.
He told reporters that his son owned a car but preferred to walk between campus and his home in Buona Vista.
'He told me he was tired of always sitting down at the desk, so he enjoyed the exercise he got from his walks. He was always concerned about his health,' said Mr Ooi, as he broke down in tears.
Prof Ooi leaves behind his wife, a housewife aged 38, and an eight-year-old son.
His father said the family did not wish for any apology or for the truck driver to attend the funeral.
He said: 'Even if he apologises, it won't change the situation. It doesn't matter whether or not the truck driver had the right of way. The pedestrian's safety should always come first.'
The truck driver, an unidentified man in his 50s, is helping the police in investigations. KIMBERLY SPYKERMAN
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The truck driver (left), who is in his 50s, talking to a passer-by at the accident scene yesterday. The incident happened at 8.30pm while the professor was walking home. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->A TRUCK hit an engineering professor on Tuesday evening, killing him.
Associate Professor Ooi Ban Leong of the National University of Singapore (NUS), who was taking his usual walk home from the campus, was then crossing the road at the junction of Commonwealth Avenue West and Clementi Road at 8.30pm.
He died at the scene from severe head injuries.
Prof Ooi, 41, who had taught at the university's department of electrical and computer engineering since 1996, specialised in microwave engineering, said an NUS spokesman.
He was said to have been popular with the students.
His father, 62-year-old security guard Ooi Chor Seng, was at the mortuary yesterday to claim his body.
He told reporters that his son owned a car but preferred to walk between campus and his home in Buona Vista.
'He told me he was tired of always sitting down at the desk, so he enjoyed the exercise he got from his walks. He was always concerned about his health,' said Mr Ooi, as he broke down in tears.
Prof Ooi leaves behind his wife, a housewife aged 38, and an eight-year-old son.
His father said the family did not wish for any apology or for the truck driver to attend the funeral.
He said: 'Even if he apologises, it won't change the situation. It doesn't matter whether or not the truck driver had the right of way. The pedestrian's safety should always come first.'
The truck driver, an unidentified man in his 50s, is helping the police in investigations. KIMBERLY SPYKERMAN
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