| DAVID
GOH'S HOME PAGE Last updated: 16 Aug 2003 David's SoapBox This page is located on:
|
Crash ends student's dream to be a
teacher Last updated 16 Aug 2003 Back to D'Singapore Scene There's enough tragedy on the roads! Please be careful !!!
The Straits Times Interactive JULY 26, 2001 Crash ends student's dream to be a teacher By K.C. Vijayan SHEENA Lan Pei Yu, who turned 21 two months ago, had a dream. The girl who came from Taiwan with her mother and elder sister about 16 years ago to start life anew in Singapore wanted to be a teacher. She came so close, after joining the Nanyang Technological University last year to do a Bachelor of Arts degree with a Diploma in Education. Then it all ended two days ago, when she died in an accident. On Tuesday afternoon, as she was returning to her NTU hostel on her motorcycle after a giving a tuition lesson, she skidded on the Ayer Rajah Expressway. She was thrown off and died instantly of severe head injuries. Her teaching degree course made her an employee of the Ministry of Education, which pays the first two years of a student's university fees and provides a salary of $1,800 a month for that period. But the girl, who had just begun her second year at NTU, knew that even if she was careful with her money, it would not cover all her fees and expenses for the last two years of her studies. So she gave tuition twice a week, to lessen the burden on her family. A few months ago, she dipped into her savings and bought a motorcycle, a 200 cc Honda Phantom, to save travelling time. The police said she had apparently lost control near the Clementi Avenue 2 exit at about 3.45 pm. She was flung to the extreme right lane of her side of the six-lane highway. Her bike was found 10 m away. Sheena, who was still paying for the instalments on the motorcycle when she died, obtained her Class 2B licence about six months ago and was still holding a probationary licence. Yesterday, her distraught mother, Grace, 45, who remarried a hygiene manager of a food court in Woodlands some years ago, was too upset to speak to reporters who visited the family's HDB flat in Tampines. Her stepbrother, Stanley Keng, 16, would only say: 'We were all shocked when we heard about the accident.' An NTU spokesman described her as a bright student, who did well in her studies. The spokesman added that staff at the university were saddened by her death. Some of Sheena's NTU classmates turned up at the Singapore General Hospital's mortuary to help her parents claim her body. One of them said: 'She was a hardworking, friendly and good person, who took part in many things. She wanted to become a good teacher. We cannot believe she is gone.'
|
