SMRT Trains chief operations officer (COO) Alvin Kek has been arrested for drink driving.

According to a Straits Times (ST) report, Kek was detained at the Woodlands Checkpoint on Saturday (21 April) morning. Separately, the police said a 50-year-old man had been arrested at the checkpoint for drink driving at 5am that morning but gave no further details.

A spokesperson for SMRT said that the matter is currently “under investigation” and declined to comment further as “it concerns a personal matter”. The ST report said that Kek’s father died recently.

Prior to joining SMRT, Kek spent 14 years in the Singapore Armed Forces – where he attained the rank of colonel and served as a chief engineering officer.

He was one of the four former military men brought into SMRT in 2013 by chief executive officer Desmond Kuek and was appointed as SMRT’s COO in February. Kuek will be replaced as CEO by former chief of defence force Neo Kian Hong on 1 August.

Last November, Kek was part of the media briefing following the Joo Koon train collision that left 38 commuters injured.