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SINGAPORE: The premature release of an online exam paper at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) on Nov 7 was due to human error by an administrative staff member, said Minister of State for Education Gan Siow Huang on Monday (Nov 28). 

The individual failed to password-protect the electronic version of the test paper, which was meant for students taking the test online, she said in response to parliamentary questions about the case. 

“As a result, the students were inadvertently given access to questions before the test started,” she added. 

NTU is conducting an internal investigation into the test paper leak, reviewing its protocols and staff training to prevent similar incidents from happening again, she noted. 

The university undertook remedial action to ensure a fair assessment process for all students by having a retest with reduced examinable topics, she added. 

218 students had to retake their module’s final test.

The final test of the HP2200 (Biological Psychology) course took place on Nov 7 at 9.30am, and most students took their test at a lecture theatre, said Associate Professor Chia Wai Mun, who is Associate Chair (Academic) of NTU’s School of Social Sciences. 

Students who had COVID-19 took an online version of the test administered by the undergraduate office, she said. They all took the same paper and started simultaneously. 

However, NTU later learned that the test paper was found on the student learning platform before the test started, said Assoc Prof Chia, apologising to students who had to retake the test for fairness.

The institutes of higher learning have protocols to prevent unauthorised access or premature release of examination papers, said Ms Gan. 

“These include password-protecting digital copies of examination papers and only releasing the password to students just before the scheduled examination time, hosting e-assessments on internal platforms with controlled access, and storing printed copies in secure locations with restricted access,” she added. 

In the past three years, there were five isolated incidents where exam papers were leaked ahead of time, affecting “a small minority” of the undergraduate student population in the more serious cases, said the Minister of State. 

​The institutes acknowledge the additional stress on students who need to retake examinations, she added. 

“Sufficient time is provided for students to prepare for the re-examination. In addition, lecturers and mentors avail themselves to support affected students.

"Students who require more assistance can also turn to para-counsellors, or professional counsellors in the IHLs (institutes of higher learning).” 

SINGAPORE: There has been an increase in the number of retrenchments in the tech sector, with 1,270 local workers laid off from July to mid-November, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng told Parliament on Monday (Nov 28).

Among them, around eight in 10 were in non-tech roles such as sales, marketing and corporate functions.

Around seven in 10 were aged 35 and below, said Dr Tan, adding that this is "consistent" with the low median age of residents employed in the information and communications (I&C) sector.

The minister was responding to questions from several Members of Parliament about how a spate of tech layoffs worldwide has affected workers in Singapore, and the employment support being offered to them.

Twitter, Facebook parent Meta and Shopee are among the tech companies that have laid off workers in Singapore this year.

Noting that the tech sector generally refers to the I&C sector, Dr Tan said that the sector employed 136,100 residents as of June.

He added that the figure has increased steadily over the past five years at an average of 8,100 resident workers a year from June 2017.

"In comparison, retrenchment numbers over the past five years have been relatively low, at an average of 790 resident workers per year," said Dr Tan.

"Based on available labour market data, 260 residents were retrenched in the first half of this year, as compared to the increase of 7,000 residents employed in the sector."

Dr Tan said that recent retrenchment notices received by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) indicated an "uptick" in the retrenchment of local or resident workers in the tech sector.

Employers with businesses registered in Singapore and at least 10 employees are legally required to notify MOM of any retrenchment within five working days of informing the affected employees.

EMPLOYMENT SUPPORT

Turning to employment support, Dr Tan said that most workers from the I&C sector have been able to secure a job "soon after" retrenchment.

In the second quarter of the year, the rate of re-entry into employment within six months after retrenchment for resident workers in the I&C sector was higher than in the overall economy, he said.

"This suggests that retrenched non-tech workers had also found employment opportunities across the I&C sector and the larger economy," said Dr Tan.

He added that job vacancies in the sector have continued to rise in the first half of the year, from 11,100 in December 2021 to 12,100 in June. This is more than triple the 3,800 vacancies in June 2020.

"In addition, other sectors like financial services, including local banks, are also hiring for tech roles.

"Taken together, this reflects that there is strong absorptive capacity across the larger economy and opportunities for affected workers to fill in-demand roles," said Dr Tan.

In addition, half of the retrenching tech firms between July and mid-November have engaged outplacement partners or tapped into their industry networks to provide career transition services for their affected workers.

Dr Tan added that the Taskforce for Responsible Retrenchment and Employment Facilitation, comprising representatives from Workforce Singapore and NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute, is reaching out to all affected local employees.

On whether the Government expects more tech layoffs in the next six months, Dr Tan said MOM is mindful that hiring demand "may moderate" in some parts of the I&C sector given macroeconomic uncertainties and risks.

​Dr Tan added that generally, employees retrenched from tech roles were able to find jobs "much faster" compared to those working in non-tech roles.

The retrenched non-tech workers were being encouraged to consider career conversion programmes and skills upgrading to improve their chances of returning to the workforce, he said.

Ms Cheryl Chan (PAP-Fengshan) also asked whether the layoffs would have a knock-on effect on salary adjustment for workers in the tech industry.

Dr Tan responded that the median income of workers in the I&C sector has been rising, with a median gross monthly income for full-time local workers rising from S$5,700 in 2017 to S$6,100 in 2021.

As employers were not required to submit the salary data of retrenched workers to MOM, Dr Tan said he was not able to comment on any knock-on effects and that it was "a bit early" to do so.

In response to a question by Dr Lim Wee Kiak (PAP-Sembawang) on whether retrenched workers in tech roles were finding equivalent jobs with a similar salary, Dr Tan said this was "very, very granular" data to track.

"Today, we don't see the switch into a lower-paying job in a non-tech role as a fundamental issue that needs a particular focus," he said.

"But we are very, very, very careful in terms of making sure that our Singapore core and our residents who are working here continue to possess the skills and to keep ahead."

SINGAPORE - A woman charged with shouting insults at a district judge during the trial of Benjamin Glynn, a Briton who claimed to be a “sovereign” after he was caught not wearing a mask in public amid the Covid-19 pandemic, was handed three additional charges on Monday.

Lee Hui Yin, 52, also known as Tarchandi Tan, is now accused of three counts of failing to attend in obedience to an order from a public servant.

The Singaporean currently faces seven charges in total, two of which involve using criminal force on a public servant and a charge each under the Protection from Harassment Act (Poha) and the Miscellaneous Offences Act.

Lee’s new charges pertain to her allegedly not attending a State Courts hearing on Sept 15 and failing to appear at Central Police Division Headquarters for investigations on Aug 10 and 31, even though she was legally bound to do so.

On Nov 10, she is said to have spat on the faces of two police officers when she was in a police vehicle travelling along Keppel Road at around 1.20pm.

The next day, she was charged in court with one count each of harassment and behaving in a disorderly manner over her alleged actions during Benjamin Glynn’s trial on Aug 18, 2021.

In an earlier statement, the police said Lee was seated in the public gallery at the State Courts on Aug 18, when she was asked to step out of the courtroom to adjust her mask, which was askew.

She then allegedly used insulting words towards District Judge Eddy Tham, saying “this is a ridiculous kangaroo court”, “if the kangaroo court requires me to wear a mask”, and “I do not respect the judge”.

Lee is also accused of behaving in a disorderly manner that day by shouting in a public place and behaving in an unruly manner in the courtroom during Glynn’s trial.

Glynn, 41, had earlier contested four charges over not wearing a mask, harassing the police and being a public nuisance.

The former recruitment consultant was then convicted and sentenced to six weeks’ jail.

He was deported to Britain in August 2021, and is barred from re-entering Singapore.

Lee, who is in remand, told the court on Monday that her boyfriend is present to bail her out.

She also said that she had previously been kidnapped by sex traffickers and has a history of anxiety and panic attacks.

Lee will return to court for a pre-trial conference on Dec 14.

For each count of failing to attend an order from a public servant, she can be jailed for a month and fined up to $1,500.

SINGAPORE - Height-based outdoor adventure learning (OAL) activities for schools will resume from Feb 1, 2023, with enhanced safety measures set in place by the Ministry of Education (MOE).

The resumption of these activities includes a set of three enhanced safety measures.

First, operators offering height-based activities for MOE students must have their facilities accredited regularly by a national sports association or a regional OAL professional body. Schools must engage only accredited operators and qualified instructors for such activities.

Second, there will be a progressive resumption of activities. Challenge course activities, such as zipline, and obstacle courses that require belaying, will resume at a reduced tempo of 50 per cent or less of their normal operational capacity from Feb 1 to March 31, 2023. This is to ensure operators are given time to adjust after a two-year break.

Third, the ministry has appointed and trained staff as OAL activity leaders since early 2022 to oversee the safe and quality delivery of such activities for students.

The Outdoor Adventure Education Council, which was formed in September 2022, has reviewed MOE’s enhanced safety measures and supported the resumption of height-based OAL activities for schools. The council is currently developing national standards to govern the operations and safety of height-based activities across the outdoor education sector, which will be adopted by MOE once they are available.

The ministry has also been conducting refresher sessions and re-certification courses to help instructors keep their certifications current. It will also conduct skills verification sessions in January 2023 to ensure instructors are confident that they can resume challenge course activities safely.

Height-based activities have been suspended since February 2021 following an incident that resulted in the death of 15-year-old Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) student Jethro Puah.

Jethro had lost his footing during a high-element activity and lost consciousness while he was suspended by the safety harness in midair. He was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, where he died the next morning.

Following the incident, MOE suspended outdoor activities involving heights for all schools.

Then Education Minister Lawrence Wong had told Parliament in February 2021 that all height-based outdoor educational activities would remain suspended until a review by the MOE was completed.

SINGAPORE – Deep in a peat swamp forest in southern Sumatra, an Indonesian researcher and his team swam across a muddy river and climbed a giant tree once a month for more than a year to get a closer look at what they suspected to be a new tree species.

After collecting and studying enough flowers, fruits and leaves – while keeping away from tigers prowling the forest – the researcher, Mr Agusti Randi, and his colleagues in Singapore confirmed that it is a new record for peat flora.

The new 40m-tall peat tree – named Lophopetalum tanahgambut, which translates into “the peatland crowned petal” from Latin and Bahasa Indonesia – adds to the understudied but potentially growing list of around 350 species of trees in the scarce peat swamp forests of South-east Asia.

Peat swamp is formed when tropical forest trees grow in water-logged soil. When leaves and other tree debris fall off, they decompose slowly because of the wet ground. Therefore, peat lands are known to be strong carbon sponges, storing huge amounts of carbon in the form of accumulated dead plant matter.

But peat swamps have heavily declined in Indonesia due to decades of logging, draining and burning to turn the fragile habitat into plantations to produce raw materials for palm oil, and pulp and paper.

Mr Randi is a research assistant at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Environmental Research Institute’s Integrated Tropical Peatlands Research Programme.

The programme’s co-lead, Dr Lahiru Wijedasa, said: “If you want to restore the peat swamp, you first need to know what the plants are.”

In 2017, the scientists were near Sumatra’s Jambi province, mapping the forest area’s flora. Among the vegetation they surveyed, up to seven types were unfamiliar to the scientists. One of them was the Lophopetalum tanahgambut.

From the vein patterns on the giant tree’s leaves, Mr Randi suspected it belonged to the Lophopetalum genus, but its leaves are arranged in an unfamiliar manner. The scientists had a hunch that the tree could be a new species.

But Lophopetalum trees are identified through their flowers, and the scientists had missed the flowering season. So they resumed regular fieldwork in late 2020.

To track the tree’s growth and collect more samples such as fruits and buds, Mr Randi and his team returned to the tree every month, repeatedly going through the rigour of swimming across the river and scaling the giant.

As they became more familiar with the site over the months, they also found nine more Lophopetalum tanahgambut trees.

In April 2022, they finally captured the tree in full bloom and were able to confirm that it is a new species of Lophopetalum. They worked with experts from Britain’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to describe the species completely. Their findings were published in scientific journal Phytotaxa on Nov 17.

“I have described and published quite a lot on new species, but this one is very special for me. It took a long time to wait and collect all the tree’s (features),” said Mr Randi.

The Lophopetalum tanahgambut is the team’s second peat tree discovery in southern Sumatra under the NUS research programme. Their first one, whose discovery was published in January, is the first new find of a peat swamp tree in almost 60 years.

Work continues on the other five unidentified trees, which could be new species too.

By 2023, Dr Lahiru and Mr Randi, alongside more than 50 botanists in the region, aim to publish a book detailing the peat swamp flora of South-east Asia. On top of describing each species, the guide will also give ecological information about each plant. The lesser-known peatland rambutans and durians will also be featured.

But describing peat tree species is the easy part, said Dr Lahiru.

“The difficult stuff comes after this. Once you know the plants, the difficult part is knowing how to use this information to restore the ecosystem.”

​In 2016, Indonesia launched the Badan Restorasi Gambut, an agency tasked with restoring 2.49 million ha of the archipelago’s most vulnerable peatlands over five years. Its mandate has since been extended to 2024 and expanded to include mangrove restoration.

Professor Gusti Anshari from West Kalimantan’s Tanjungpura University, who was not involved in the research, said: “At present, most seedlings for restoration are collected from the remaining peat forests, and the quality of these wildings are generally poor. We need to enhance natural regeneration and control disturbances (by human activities) that cause degradation.

“The work of Lahiru is important if he could identify favourable sites for speeding up restoration, and help nature restore.”

Dr Lahiru said: “We stand by the principle that there needs to be the right plant for the right site. In the peat swamps, you need plants that can survive the acidic soil, the very low nutrients, the flooding. Peatlands are probably the hardest things to restore.”

In the near future, Mr Randi and Dr Lahiru are looking to grow peat tree saplings in nurseries to identify each species’ ideal growth conditions. For example, they hope to identify plants that can grow in degraded or burnt peatlands.

SINGAPORE - Passengers on a Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight that was diverted to Frankfurt on Thursday are set to land in Singapore on Saturday at 11am via a relief flight.

SQ317, which was operating from London to Singapore, was diverted due to a cabin pressurisation issue as a precautionary measure. The Airbus A380 aircraft landed uneventfully at Frankfurt Airport at about 2pm (Frankfurt local time).

On Friday, an SIA spokesman gave an update that the aircraft was subsequently grounded for repairs.

Affected passengers were assisted with hotel accommodation and meals.

A relief flight, SQ9326, has been scheduled to depart Singapore at 8am (local time) on Friday and arrive in Frankfurt at 2.25pm (Frankfurt local time). The flight is expected to depart Frankfurt as SQ9325 at 3.55pm (Frankfurt local time) and arrive in Singapore at 11.05am on Saturday.

The spokesman said there were 379 passengers and 27 crew.

The airline said: “Arrangements are currently being made to assist all customers. SIA sincerely apologises for the inconvenience this has caused.

​“The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority.”

In September, an SIA flight from Paris to Singapore was diverted to Azerbaijan after an oil leak was detected in one of the Boeing 777 aircraft’s engines. There were 229 passengers and 18 crew on board that flight.

SINGAPORE - Proton beam therapy, an advanced form of radiation treatment that can target cancer tumours with greater precision and minimise damage to surrounding tissues and organs, should be available in Singapore by the first quarter of 2023. 

The Goh Cheng Liang Proton Therapy Centre at the new National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) building in Outram will start operations in the first quarter of 2023. Two other centres in the private sector will also offer proton beam therapy at around the same time. 

Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital plans to offer the therapy from next February. The Singapore Institute of Advanced Medicine Holdings (SAM), a new cancer centre in Biopolis Drive, is awaiting the go-ahead from the authorities to start offering it, possibly by the end of 2022, said its chairman and chief executive officer Djeng Shih Kien.

While conventional radiotherapy uses X-rays, proton beam therapy uses positively charged subatomic particles that allow for more precise targeting of cancer cells.

This causes less damage to nearby healthy tissues and organs, which means there are fewer treatment-related side effects. The risk of developing secondary cancers due to radiation is also reduced, said Dr Soong Yoke Lim, deputy chairman and senior consultant at the radiation oncology division at NCCS.

This is why it is recommended for young patients below the age of 25, he said. The therapy is particularly suitable for cancers located in sensitive areas like the brain, or near the eye or spinal cord, for example. 

Professor Robert Malyapa, director of SAM’s proton therapy centre, who has experience treating patients with the therapy in the United States, said that unlike X-rays that pass through the tumour and then exit the body, protons deposit a burst of energy at the end of their path, which is known as the Bragg peak. There is no exit dose of radiation as the proton beam stops at the tumour.

​“With conventional radiation, for example, it may come from such a direction that the areas that you don’t want to treat get treated,” said Dr Soong.

He said there is no difference between proton therapy and conventional therapy where cure rates are concerned, because the dose of radiation delivered to the tumour is similar.

Still, it was a no-brainer for Mr Peter Wong to send his then 21-year-old son Samuel for proton therapy in Taiwan in 2019, after he was diagnosed with stage one nasopharyngeal cancer in Singapore. Radiotherapy is the main treatment for this type of cancer.

Mr Wong said he claimed from Samuel’s critical illness insurance and paid $100,000 for the proton beam treatment alone. In Taiwan, his son went through 33 sessions of proton therapy for five days a week as well as six weekly sessions of chemotherapy. 

“I lost my sense of taste of sugar, salt, bitterness and sourness… Eating pepper was almost the same as taking a bite of chilli padi, and that happened for about six months after the treatment,” said Mr Samuel Wong.

His left ear was also affected as his tumour was located very close to the eustachian tube, which helps to balance the pressure between the inner and outer ear. He now experiences a permanent blocked-ear sensation as if he is on a plane, said Dr Soong.

Proton beam technology is costly. SAM spent around $85 million on its proton beam facility, Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital put in close to $80 million on its facility, while NCCS invested $100 million on its system. NCCS’ facility has four treatment spaces served by one particle accelerator, while the other two centres have one treatment space each.

Prof Malyapa said a course of proton beam treatment can consist of at least 25 to as many as 37 sessions, depending on the severity of the cancer. Each session at SAM will cost $2,800 to $2,900, said Dr Djeng.

SINGAPORE – A warrant of arrest has been issued against the former principal of the now-defunct Zeus Education Centre, who was earlier sentenced to four years’ jail over multiple counts of cheating involving six candidates in the 2016 O-level examinations.

Lawyer Peter Fernando, who had earlier represented Poh Yuan Nie, 56, told The Straits Times on Thursday that the warrant of arrest was issued after she failed to turn up in court to begin her jail sentence.

“I don’t know where she is now,” he added.

Mr Fernando had discharged himself from representing her following a pre-trial conference on Wednesday.

Poh and her niece, former tutor Fiona Poh Min, 35, were each convicted in 2020 of 27 charges of engaging in a conspiracy to cheat. Fiona Poh was then sentenced to three years’ jail.

The pair then took the case to the Court of Appeal in a procedure known as a criminal reference, seeking to have the apex court determine a question of law of public interest.

The issue posed to the court turned on the meaning of the word “dishonest” in the phrase “dishonest concealment of facts”.

The pair’s lawyers argued that the meaning of “dishonest” has to be determined with reference to the definition of “dishonestly” under Section 24 of the Penal Code.

The provision states that a person is said to do an act dishonestly if he or she does it with the intention of causing wrongful gain or wrongful loss to another person.

The prosecution argued that a plain or ordinary meaning of “dishonest” should be adopted instead.

In a written judgment on Monday, the apex court agreed with the prosecution that the word “dishonest” must be interpreted as being used in the ordinary sense of the word rather than in the special sense given to it by Section 24 of the Penal Code.

The court also concluded that the word “dishonest” describes the mental state of the accused when committing a cheating offence.

Poh Yuan Nie, also known as Pony, had been assisted by her then tutors, including her niece, to help six students cheat in their papers during the 2016 O-level examinations.

They committed the offences on multiple occasions in October 2016.

The prosecution had earlier stated in its submissions that Poh Yuan Nie was paid $8,000 per student by Mr Dong Xin – a Chinese national – to provide tuition for the youngsters to help them pass the examinations and enter local polytechnics.

A few hours before each examination, a group of people, including Fiona Poh and then tutor Tan Jia Yan, helped to tape communication devices on the students.

Tan, then 34, was sentenced to three years’ jail in 2019 over her role in the ruse.

The students then sat the examinations with the devices taped to their bodies, carefully concealed by their clothes.

Tan also sat the examinations as a private candidate and used the FaceTime application on her phone to present a live stream of the question papers to the tuition centre.

Her accomplices then worked on the questions they received via the live stream before the students were called and had the answers read out to them.

Poh Yuan Nie oversaw the entire process, said the prosecution. Tan and Fiona Poh reversed their roles for mathematics paper 2 as Tan was better at the subject.

The prosecution had stated that this criminal set-up succeeded for three papers from Oct 19 to 21 in 2016.

But it got exposed on Oct 24 that year when an alert invigilator heard unusual electronic transmissions and voices coming from one of the students.

After the examination, the student was taken to an office where he handed over the devices, including Bluetooth receivers and an earpiece. He also came clean about how the ruse was carried out.

Poh Yuan Nie still has pending charges, including multiple counts of cheating. A review into her warrant of arrest will be held on Jan 18, 2023.

Fiona Poh has one pending charge of intentionally obstructing, preventing, perverting or defeating the course of justice. Her pre-trial conference will be held eight days later.

SINGAPORE – A renovation firm director who had fled Singapore after he allegedly murdered his business partner did not appear in a district court on Friday as he is still warded at Changi General Hospital.

It was not mentioned why he is warded in hospital.

Caleb Joshua Chai Shanmugam, 50, was charged with murder on Nov 18.

He will be remanded at the Central Police Division upon his discharge and his case has been adjourned to Dec 2.

Chai is accused of killing Ms Ang Qi Ying, 27, in a ground-floor unit at Block 2 Beach Road around 7pm on Nov 9.

The pair were co-directors of Smart Click Services.

Reporters previously reported that Ms Ang had gone missing on Nov 9, prompting pleas from friends and family for information on her whereabouts.

Her last message was to her mother that day, stating that she would not be returning home.

After he allegedly killed Ms Ang, Chai left for Malaysia on Nov 10.

In an earlier statement, the police said officers were alerted to a case of unnatural death at the shop four days after the alleged murder.

The police said in the statement: “(The woman) was linked to a missing person report made on the evening of Nov 10 and the police had identified a 50-year-old man in connection to the case.”

With help from the Royal Malaysia Police, Chai was caught in Johor Bahru on Nov 16 and handed over to Singapore police.

​Chai is represented by lawyers Suang Wijaya and Sophia Ng from Eugene Thuraisingam LLP.

Offenders convicted of murder face the death penalty.

Rental cars might be an affordable way to get around for those who can't afford their own vehicle, but there might be a hefty price to pay if you get into an accident. 

Recently, a man was handed a whopping $9,775 bill after the BlueSG car he rented collided with a lorry in Marsiling. 

Choar Choong Leong took to Facebook on Wednesday (Nov 23) to voice his grievances, wondering if he should have gotten his own dashcam camera, as his rented vehicle did not have one. 

In his post, there were two tax invoices from BlueSG which included own damage claims of about $4,700 and a third-party damage fee of $3,300. There were other administrative charges too.  

Recalling the accident on June 2, Choar added he was "pretty sure" the lorry was speeding and that the driver "lost control of his steering wheel". 

"He didn't even honk or slow down as I felt the impact when [his vehicle] brushed against the side of the car," he posted. 

"[There's] no way to prove my innocence."

Not all BlueSG cars have dashcam cameras though. But the rental company did say in a post in February that they'll started installing them in their vehicles progressively. 

According to the pictures that Choar included in his post, the front of the vehicle was dented, and the bumper was displaced. The passenger's side of the car looks quite badly damaged.

On the other hand, the lorry suffered minimal damage with some minor scratches resulting from the accident. The lorry driver also allegedly told Choar that he'd been in a similar accident previously. 

"All I ask for is the cost breakdown as I want to fully understand what am I paying for. Is it really that expensive to fix a hollow bumper and steel bar exoskeleton while everything else was intact?", Choar questioned. 

Some netizens were rather sympathetic towards his plight, while others felt that he had no choice but to "suck it up". 

Reporters has reached out to Choar and BlueSG for more information. 

Previously, another BlueSG driver also found himself slapped with a $10,000 repair fee after a stranger allegedly helped him to park the rental car. 

However, instead of stepping on the brakes, the stranger accidentally stepped on the accelerator, causing the vehicle to hit a garbage can. 

What to do in such accidents 

According to information from BizLink's website, a car rental and leasing company, it's important to take detailed photos of the accident scene, which includes photos of all vehicles, the surrounding areas, and the extent of the damage. In some cases, taking videos at the site could help capture the scene in a more holistic manner.

The company also advises drivers to pay attention to the time, date and location of the accident. 

This is to provide the relevant authorities with as much context as possible for them to make the necessary decision calls.