Don’t. Just don’t.
That’s what I say to throwing your bicycle. Even if it’s a Huffy or some other department-store special. Even if you’re really, really angry about something—or at someone.
My advice, however, might not have swayed Mohammad Noor Iszuan Noordin. I can understand how having a name like that—and having to say, spell or write it—can frustrate somebody. Still, it’s not the reason why he tossed a 25 kilogram (55 pound) bike from a 14th story window in Singapore nearly two years ago.
So what motivated him to fling his yellow tank on wheels (It was indeed a bicycle, not an ebike!) into the urban horizon?
An argument with his wife.
Now, I grant you that if one must take out one’s frustrations, it’s better done on an inanimate object than an intimate partner. (Trust me, I know: I’ve been on the receiving end of such an attack!) Still, I’d rather that a bicycle flies (if only metaphorically) with a person aboard than turns into a potentially-deadly projectile.
So, what was the subject of the argument that drove Mr. Noordin to send his bike plummeting to a Singapore sidewalk? Something that would have altered the course of their lives together: the attire for their upcoming wedding reception.
Marriages have ended, or been cancelled, over less. Still, the couple wed. If nothing else, it grants visitation rights: Earlier today, he was sentenced to a month in jail for “committing a rash act endangering the personal safety of others.”
The prosecutor sought a longer sentence. While conceding that Mr. Noordin has “borderline intellectual functioning,” she noted that he hadn’t checked for passerby when he heaved the hulking machine. But defense lawyer Anand Nalanchandran used that fact to argue that Noordin tossing the bike was “an emotional reaction “ and that had he looked for passerby, things could have been worse.
So is the moral of this story that if you throw your bike out a window, be sure not to check for anyone who might be unlucky enough to walk by?
