IN A small, wood-panelled courtroom, a police officer sits in the witness stand, in his hand a file that contains everything known about the death of Mr Hu Chunqing.
The 60-year-old retired bank officer was killed earlier this year while crossing the West Coast Highway on foot.
His case has ended up at the Coroner's Court, a place where matters of life and death are handled with little fanfare.
The sombre setting, rife with detached words such as misadventure and open verdicts, is where the authorities try to determine how someone died.
Unlike the public galleries in other courtrooms, the one here is usually empty. There are no grieving relatives. No friends with vengeance on their minds.
Family members say they skip the hearing because they want to get on with their lives.
'What's past is past,' said 41-year- old housewife S. Rahimah, whose father slipped at home and fractured his skull last year.
'There was no doubt how he died and no reason to go to the inquiry.'
Her father's case was one of about 2,150 that passed through the Coroner's Court between January and June.
The court handles unnatural deaths and the coroner is charged with determining how someone met his end, often in the face of scant information.
Family members are usually present only when they are considering legal action against those they believe are responsible for the death of their loved one.
Such cases commonly involve traffic collisions or industrial accidents. Lawyers are sometimes hired to question the investigating officer or witnesses at the inquiry.
When family members do the questioning, it can be traumatic.
Last year, the father of a 13-year-old boy who died in a road accident got into a heated confrontation with a passer-by who witnessed the collision.
Tears flowing and voice raised, the father refused to believe his son had run out onto the road, where he was hit by a passing car, dying on the spot of head injuries.
The coroner's verdict was of misadventure, which means the death was the result of an accident caused by the victim or by events beyond human control.
It tends to be the most troubling decision for families, who often believe that someone or something is to blame.
Lawyer N.K. Rajarh said that he has been approached by such families looking to sue over their loved ones' deaths.
'If there is any contributory negligence by the deceased, then the court will deduct a certain portion from the compensation,' he added.
When the circumstances of a death are not clear despite investigations, an open verdict is rendered.
This was the case for 74-year-old Siti Asa Puteh, who was found dead in her one-room Geylang Bahru flat on March 3.
Her gas pipe had been opened but there were no tools in her apartment, which had been locked from the inside.
The coroner could not say it was suicide as there was no evidence that she planned to take her own life.
An open verdict was also recorded on the death of 25-year-old car-washer Guo Jinlong, who died of complications from a fractured spine.
Witnesses heard a branch falling near him but no one saw how he fell face-up across a small drain.
Suicides are also dealt with in the Coroner's Court. While they may look straightforward, they still need investigating.
The coroner will lead the questioning if no family member is present.
The questions range from the financial and mental state of the dead person to his whereabouts just before his death.
A pathologist will also examine the body to see if all the injuries are consistent with a certain manner of death. It is up to the coroner to make the final decision.
Landscape designer Steven Pang, 39, attended the inquiry of his older brother's death in March.
'I guessed it was suicide and just wanted the coroner to confirm it,' he said.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on August 18, 2008.
