Details of the Singaporean boat mishap during the 2007 Boat Race Festival (Graphic: Electric News)
Electric News (Singapore)HE has two words to describe his ordeal in the murky water of Cambodia's Tonle Sap river - 'near death'.
Mr Tan yesterday, after arriving back in Singapore.
For more than 10 seconds, national team dragon boat rower Darren Tan, 20, was trapped under a tugboat after the Singaporean dragonboat capsized.
And those seconds seemed like an eternity as he lost his orientation in the 10-metre-deep water, his eyes tightly closed.
At that same time, he was not swimming, because he simply couldn't.
He felt the force of the water swirling him backwards in circles, round and round.
'I was travelling rapidly,' he recalled.
His arms were flaying uncontrollably and his right hand hit a limb, but he could not be sure whose it was.
Mr Tan also swallowed three mouthfuls of muddy water, choked, and ran out of air.
That was when he felt he was 'going to die'.
It felt like the water was 'sinking', he added.
Only when he swam up 'at the right moment' and managed to hit the surface did he open his eyes.
Mr Tan's account of what happened that fateful Friday in Phnom Penh is likely the first to emerge from the tragic accident that claimed the lives of five Singaporean rowers.
He is among the 17 survivors of the 22 national team rowers whose boat capsized as they were heading towards their docking point after their race .
The bodies of Mr Chee Wei Cheng, 20, Mr Jeremy Goh Tze Xiong, 24, Mr Stephen Loh Soon Ann, 31, Mr Poh Boon San, 27, and Mr Reuben Kee En Rui, 23 were recovered on Sunday and brought home in a military aircraft last night.
Mr Tan told The New Paper why their boat had capsized. About 50m away from where they were supposed to dock, their boat was passing by a pontoon when it swerved towards it and collided with a tugboat near the pontoon.
It also hit the pontoon, which is the size of a basketball court.
According to witnesses, a sudden swirling wave had hit the boat and pushed it towards the pontoon.The boat tilted to the right.
Mr Tan's account is similar to that of Mr Surash Raman Mukundan, the secretary-general of the Singapore Dragon Boat Association, who said the accident happened as the boat hit a stationary tugboat near the pontoon.
The collision caused the 500kg boat to spin towards the pontoon. As it was about to hit the pontoon, the rowers tried to use their hands to push against it.
Said Mr Surash: 'But in doing so, they pushed the dragon boat downwards causing water to enter. That eventually made the boat sink.'
He said right after the accident occurred, he saw about six people surfacing in the water immediately.
But some were swept underneath the pontoon, including team captain Yeo Chin Hwei, who remains too distraught to talk about the experience.
Mr Tan said that as the boat began to capsize, some rowers on the front left grabbed onto the tyres along the pontoon to try to climb out.
Those at the rear tried to grab onto the tugboat's tyres.
The rowers on the right, however, were mostly thrown into the water.
Mr Tan hit the hull of the tugboat and was forced under the murky water.
He struggled for more than 10 seconds without air before he found his way to the surface.
By that time, the current had swept him to the other end of the tugboat.
Mr Tan said: 'You would normally float in a swimming pool. But the water there doesn't allow you to float,' he said.
He felt lucky to be alive because 'somehow, I decided to swim up at the right moment. Then I saw light.'When he surfaced, a teammate caught hold of him immediately and pulled him towards a tyre, which he grabbed.
In that same moment, Mr Tan also saw a teammate floating pass him.
He reached out in time to grab his teammate by his singlet, his other hand still holding the tyre.
Suffering from fatigue after the race and the struggle underwater, Mr Tan used all his energy to pull his team-mate towards the tyre until he could reach it and save himself.
'I had exhausted all my energy by then,' he said.
The rowers were pulled one by one up to land and taken to the hospital for chest X-rays.
Of his narrow escape, a visibly affected Mr Tan murmured: 'Near death...'
VICTIMS SAT IN FRONT
While family members have questioned why the rowers were not wearing life jackets, it appears that they might not have made a difference if the victims were dragged under the pontoon.
It is understood the five victims were seated in the front of the boat - which was parallel to the pontoon.
A Cambodian official said that boats taking part in the Tonle Sap races had been warned about strong currents and swirling waters on one side of the river.
Dr Nhim Vanda also said the Singapore team had been warned not to approach a pontoon on that side of the river.
Singapore officials would not verify if the team had been warned.
And Mr Tan said he was not aware of such a warning.
Dr Vanda, vice-president of the National Committee for Disaster Management, said traditional Cambodian boats that take up to 85 men can withstand such conditions, but not the smaller 22-man boat used by the Singaporeans.
That evening, when the team cleared the bus of their belongings, Mr Tan said he saw a shoebag lying in a corner by a seat.
It belonged to Mr Chee Wei Cheng, 20, a close friend who drowned.
Mr Tan hugged Mr Chee's shoebag to sleep that night.
But waking up in tears later, he said: 'I dreamt of Wei Cheng, he came to me and told me not to wait anymore.
'He said goodbye.'
