Fact-check: Is this a viral video of a car crash in Singapore?

The video, which shows a car smashing into a row of parked motorcycles in a tunnel, was uploaded in this Facebook post on June 15, 2019, where it has been viewed more than 147,000 times and shared more than 4,300 times.

By AFP
June 24, 2019

A video of a high-speed car crash has been viewed tens of thousands of times in Facebook posts that claim it shows an accident that happened in Singapore. The claim is false; the video actually shows an incident that took place in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The video, which shows a car smashing into a row of parked motorcycles in a tunnel, was uploaded in this Facebook post on June 15, 2019, where it has been viewed more than 147,000 times and shared more than 4,300 times.

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The post’s caption says: “In singapore.. tuas”.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

Tuas refers to a location in the west of Singapore. There is a highway in the area called the Malaysia-Singapore Second Link, which connects the neighbouring country Malaysia to Singapore.

Another similar Facebook post here also claims that the video shows an accident in Singapore.

The video footage does not show an accident in Singapore – the incident happened in Thailand.

The video, which appears to be CCTV footage, contains a date and timestamp in the top left-hand corner, which indicates that the accident occurred on June 13, 2019 at 6.09 pm.

The exact same video was posted in this Thai-language report by Chiang Mai News dated June 14, 2019.

Below is a screenshot of the report:

The title of the article and the video translates as: “This clip shows the second when the accident happened inside the tunnel under Fa Ham, in Chiang Mai. The car lost control and hit the motorcycle, which was parked to avoid rain.”

Fa Ham is a sub-district of Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand; it is located here on Google Maps.

Embedded below is the video clip from the Chiang Mai News report:

Google reverse image searches using keyframes from the video led to other Thai media reports, for example here in The Thaiger.

These reports all say the accident occurred at the Fa Ham, or Fa Harm, Underpass on the Super Highway in Chiang Mai.

Below is a screenshot of the Thaiger report:

Below is a screenshot comparison of the misleading video (L) and a picture in that news report (R):

The location of the accident as given by the Thai news reports is here on Google Maps.

Below is a screenshot comparison of one of the pictures from the news report (L) and the location as seen on Google Maps (R), with the similar features circled in red:



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