SINGAPORE –Tower Transit bus driver Tham Kok Poi had to endure three punches to his face and a torrent of verbal abuse while maintaining control of the bus after an emotionally unstable passenger attacked him and tried to grab the steering wheel.
With no time to react or make sense of the situation, he had one thing on his mind: to maintain a firm grip on the steering wheel and ensure the safety of some 50 passengers on the bus.
“When I was driving, I didn’t feel anything. I just knew I had to stay calm,” said the 50-year-old Malaysian bus driver in Mandarin.
“It was only after the incident when I had time to reflect on it that I felt fear. At the time (of the incident), I was just so worried that the passenger would take control of the steering wheel.”
Despite that, Mr Tham, a bus driver of six years, stayed calm and focused on driving safely, before letting all the passengers alight at the next stop.
The passenger had turned violent because he wanted to alight from the bus, service 969, in the middle of Seletar Expressway, and grew more agitated when Mr Tham told him he was unable to stop the bus before reaching the next stop in Punggol.
Mr Tham’s bravery during the incident, which took place in January, earned the Singapore permanent resident the Outstanding Award, along with 26 others, at the 26th edition of the Transport Gold Awards on Nov 18.
The Outstanding Award is the top honour at the annual event organised by the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM), the Land Transport Authority and their partners to celebrate exemplary workers in the transport industry.
The Commendation Award went to 1,444 transport staff.
The recipients were chosen after a nomination and selection process involving their peers, supervisors and a panel of representatives from the authorities and SKM.
The violent passenger who attacked Mr Tham was sentenced to 14 weeks and 10 days’ jail in February.
Right after the incident, Mr Tham’s left cheek and ear swelled up. Even now, 10 months on, he still hears a ringing sound in his ear sometimes.
Managing director of Tower Transit Singapore Winston Toh said: “We are incredibly grateful to have bus captains like Mr Tham on our team. His story is one of resilience, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to the people he serves every day.”
Mr Dandiyar Misro, a Singaporean SBS Transit senior customer service manager, who stays onboard driverless trains in case he has to take over operations during emergencies, also received the Outstanding Award.
He had intervened to protect a teenager with autism during an incident in October 2024 in a Downtown Line train travelling towards Expo.
A passenger had given up his seat for an elderly man when he mistakenly thought the teen had taken the seat instead.
Angered, the passenger grabbed the boy.
Noticing that the boy felt wronged and visibly distressed, Mr Dandiyar, 55, took him away towards the front of the train while calming him down.
The senior customer service manager of almost three years also sat him down and tried to reassure him.
It was then that he noticed the angry passenger speeding towards the boy and instinctively used his body to protect the boy from a punch.
No action was taken against the aggressive passenger as Mr Dandiyar chose not to report this incident to his company since the man had wanted to give up his seat and it was a misunderstanding.
Following the incident, the boy’s sister wrote in to SBS Transit to praise Mr Dandiyar for his kind actions.
SBS Transit spokeswoman Grace Wu said the operator is immensely proud of its people for “serving passengers with heart” and “striving to make every journey a delight”.
Another Outstanding Award recipient was Mr Muhammad Fawze Fazal, a senior station manager at SMRT Trains based at Aljunied station.
In February, he performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on an elderly man at the station who had fallen unconscious.
Mr Fawze, 38, also demonstrated sensitivity and got his colleagues to move the elderly passenger’s young grandson away from the scene, so that the boy would not be shocked by what happened to his grandfather.
The elderly passenger’s pulse returned by the time the ambulance arrived.
Mr Fawze, who has been with SMRT for 14 years, is relieved that his efforts had made a difference. But he also gave credit to the passers-by, such as a teacher who offered to bring the elderly passenger’s grandson to school, and a nurse who helped with the CPR.
Mr Ngien Hoon Ping, group chief executive officer of SMRT, said these selfless acts of service and kindness play an important role in delivering safe and pleasant journeys across SMRT’s network.
