M’sian man who came to Singapore as a teen seeking a better life for his younger siblings passes away due to injuries from SLE accident AURORATOTO GROUP

SINGAPORE: A Malaysian man who had worked in Singapore for over a decade to support his family has died from injuries sustained in a road accident on the Seletar Expressway (SLE) in June.

Non-profit organisation Soserv Welfare announced on Friday (Aug 22) that 32-year-old Jiahuang from Ipoh, Perak, passed away in hospital after more than a month of treatment.

Jiahuang was involved in a serious traffic accident on June 25 while riding his motorcycle to work with his girlfriend, Yingying. According to his younger brother, Jia Sing, a car braked suddenly due to an earlier accident on the expressway. Jiahuang was unable to stop in time and collided, throwing both riders off the bike.

“He landed unconscious on the road, his body bleeding heavily. Yingying crawled over to him, trying to check if he was still alive. She found him unresponsive, with blood streaming from his face,” Jia Sing wrote in an online appeal for donations.

Doctors later found that Jiahuang had suffered a brain haemorrhage along with multiple fractures to his face, neck and shoulder. He underwent three major surgeries, one to stop the bleeding in his brain, another to drain fluid buildup, and a third to repair fractures, but remained in a coma until his death.

Police confirmed that they received a report at about 5:15 a.m. on June 25 of an accident involving a motorcycle and two cars along the SLE towards the Central Expressway. A 31-year-old male rider was taken to hospital in a coma, while a 37-year-old female passenger was hospitalised in a conscious state.

A 30-year-old male driver was arrested for drunk and careless driving. Investigations are ongoing.

Raised in a single-parent household as the eldest of six siblings, Jiahuang moved to Singapore at the age of 19 to work in the food and beverage industry. His family said he took on the role of breadwinner early in life to ease the financial burden on his father and help raise his younger siblings.

“Every day, my eldest brother wakes up before dawn and rides his motorbike from Singapore to work — not because it’s easy, but because he’s always carried the weight of our family on his shoulders,” Jia Sing wrote.

Following the accident, the family struggled to cover medical bills, exhausting their savings and borrowing money before turning to outside help. Soserv Welfare partnered with local charity platform Give.Asia to launch a fundraising campaign, raising about RM360,000 (S$110,000) for his surgeries and treatment.

With Jiahuang’s passing, the fundraising campaign has been terminated. Soserv Welfare expressed gratitude to donors, while the family also conveyed heartfelt thanks to the public for their concern and support.

“Jiahuang didn’t do this because he wanted to. He did it because he had no choice,” his brother had written in the now-terminated fundraising appeal, describing his beloved brother as the pillar of the family who had always put others before himself.