Family and friends turn out to bid final farewell to 2 SMRT staff killed in accident
SINGAPORE — Large crowds of family members and friends turned up on Wednesday (March 23) to pay respects and bid a final farewell to the two young SMRT staff who were killed in an accident on the train tracks near Pasir Ris MRT station.
Mr Muhammad Asyraf Ahmad Buhari, 24, and Mr Nasrulhudin Najumudin, 26, were killed on Tuesday morning in the most serious fatal accident to date involving SMRT staff in the line of duty.
At about 12.40pm, some 120 people were seen at the D’Heritage Apartments in Chai Chee, the home of the uncle of the late Mr Asyraf. SMRT staff were seen to be putting up chairs for the relatives of the victim outside the apartment
Among those turned up who was Mr Muhammad Hasif Bin Mohamad Noor, 24. A friend of the victim since kindergarten, Mr Hasif described Mr Asyraf as someone who was calm and jovial. “He always creates that joyfulness within us,” said Mr Hasif.
The two friends last communicated on Monday, when Mr Hasif sent Mr Asyraf a birthday greeting on Facebook on Monday.
Mr Asyraf was the second in a family of four children. He will be buried at the Muslim cemetery at Chua Chu Kang, following prayers at the Masjid Kassim. Funeral rites for Mr Asyraf were initially scheduled for Wednesday morning, but had to be delayed because the hospital had yet to release the body.
Mr Asyraf’s parents had also been away on a pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. They were due to touch down in Singapore about 2pm on Wednesday.
A crowd of about 100 had also gathered at Blk 142 Tampines Street 12, the family home of the late Mr Nasrulhudin.
He and Mr Asyraf were part of a team of 15 who had been investigating a “reported alarm from a condition monitoring device for signalling equipment”, according to SMRT. They were both hit by an incoming train entering the Pasir Ris station at about 60km per hour. No other member of the team was injured.
The duo were walking directly behind their supervisor, who was leading the team, in a single file on the walkway beside the train track, towards the location of the signalling equipment, according to SMRT chief executive Desmond Kuek.
Police and the Ministry of Manpower are now investigating the incident, which caused a three-hour disruption between the Pasir Ris and Tanah Merah MRT stations on Tuesday.
Both Mr Asyraf and Mr Nasrulhudin joined SMRT in January — their first full-time jobs, according to their friends and relatives.
The funeral rites for Mr Nasrulhudin was scheduled for around 1pm at the Darul Ghufran mosque in Tampines, but had been similarly delayed because the body had not arrived from the hospital.
TODAY understands that Mr Nasrulhudin’s father and one of his elder brothers are also employees of SMRT. Mr Nasrulhudin’s friends describe him as someone who loved travelling, and had planned to get a degree.
