[Above: This picture of Mr Edwin Wong next to the zebra crossing was supposedly taken by his colleague immediately after the accident.]

FOR several minutes, a man claimed, he lay semi-conscious and unprotected next to a zebra crossing near Hotel Rendezvous.

Mr Edwin Wong, a senior underwriter at NTUC Income, had just been knocked down by a taxi.

He claimed the cabby went to park at a taxi stand 25m away before returning to check on him.

However, the taxi company claimed the taxi was parked just a metre from where Mr Wong lay.

Said Mr Wong: 'If he had stopped his taxi there (at the zebra crossing), I wouldn't feel so angry.'

What if another car had come along with him lying there, he asked.

The incident began at 8.10am on 20Jun, when Mr Wong was on his way to work.

It was raining, and he was hit as he took the sheltered zebra crossing linking Hotel Rendezvous to Prinsep House, on Prinsep Street.

He later found out he suffered fractures to a rib and an elbow.

According to Mr Wong, he lay there for two to three minutes.

Fortunately, one of his colleagues happened to walk by.

He told her to take down the taxi number and use his handphone to take some pictures before going for help.

The taxi does not appear in any of the pictures she took, because, according to him, it could not even be seen from where he lay.

He said he lapsed in and out of consciousness.

Then, he felt someone pulling his left hand.

He opened his eyes and saw a man, presumably the taxi driver, a security guard, and a cleaning woman.

'Don't pull him, he's injured,' he heard the security guard tell the driver.

Then he heard the taxi driver say: 'He dashed up, I didn't see him.'

Angry, Mr Wong summoned the strength to lift his head and say: 'This is a bloody zebra crossing, you idiot.'

An ambulance arrived within the next five minutes.

The taxi driver's company said the cabby gave a different version of events.

The company said that on realising what had happened, the taxi driver 'immediately' stopped and came out of the taxi to check on Mr Wong and made a call to 995 within five minutes of the accident.

He 'pulled up just a metre up the street to the side so as not to block traffic'.

The driver 'held onto' Mr Wong's left hand to ask if he could get up and did not pull it.

'NOT SPEEDING'

According to the company, the taxi was not speeding at the time of the accident and was moving at less than 15kmh.

While admitting that the accounts of the two men were 'vastly different', the taxi company said it did not wish to review the case further unless more information turned up.

Responding to the taxi company's statement, Mr Wong said the taxi should not have been moving at all when he was on the zebra crossing.

The New Paper has so far been unable to contact anyone who witnessed the accident.

No charges have been filed against the driver, according to the taxi company.

But the police said they are investigating the incident.

Mr Wong is still on medical leave, more than a month after he was knocked down.

This story was first published in The New Paper on July 25, 2008.