STOMPer Edward Lee is still reeling from an accident last Friday (Dec 21) - he was nearly burnt alive after his go-kart burst into flames following a collision with another go-kart.
 
"Had I lingered in my kart, I would have been severely burnt," he said.

The accident happened at Kart World in Yung Ho Road (Jurong), when another driver drifted, spun, and hit his go-kart.

The impact caused the fuel cap on Edward's go-kart to pop out. Fuel leaked from the go-kart.
 
Moments later, his go-kart burst into flames as a result of the leakage.

Fortunately, Edward had noticed the leakage, and got out in the nick of time. He escaped with bruises and gasoline on his pants.

Go-karting is a high-speed motor sport where drivers use small four-wheeled vehicles - called go-karts - to race against one another on a circuit. The go-karts can reach speeds exceeding 160km per hour.

Recounting the accident to STOMP in an email, Edward said:

"As the karts lined up at the starting line for the final race, the kart of one of my colleagues became faulty and smoke emerged. He had to change kart.

"As the race progressed, one of the drivers drifted and spun on the track, and as he was about to get back into the race, my kart hit his kart and the fuel cap on my kart popped out and fuel came out of the tank.
 
"I saw the fuel leakage and dashed out of my kart and helped my colleague with me. Moments later, my kart lit up in flames.

"Both of us had cuts and bruises, but my fear was that had I lingered in my kart, I would have been severely burnt."

The STOMPer has a few concerns about the dangers of go-karting.

One is the safety and maintenance of the go-karts.

"How safe are these go-karts and did the operator exercise proper care and diligence in maintaining these go-karts given two incidents within a period of 5-8 minutes - smoke coming out of one kart at the starting line and the fuel cap not properly tightened in my kart?" he asked.

He's also concerned with the loss of control of the go-kart in the middle of the track where the speed was supposed to be 'moderate'.

"We understand during the trial runs that drifting, spinning are part of the race and drivers would simply get back in the race as we had during the trial runs," he said.

"Had the karts flew out of the track, perhaps drivers could be speeding. But this accident happened right in the middle of the track which means that we were in control of our vehicles and driving at a moderate speed.