Tipper truck driver jailed for causing death by negligence and causing hurt
Abdul Kader Abdul Rahman was sentenced to eight weeks' jail and banned from driving for five years.ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
Published 11 hours ago
Elena Chong
Court Correspondent
SINGAPORE - A mechanic was repairing a burst tyre of a tipper truck along Changi Coast Road last September when another tipper truck rammed into the back of his stationary lorry which in turn hit him and the broken down truck.
Malaysian Ng Mun Heng, 38, was sandwiched between the two vehicles, and was pronounced dead at the scene about 30 minutes later.
On Tuesday (July 19), truck driver Abdul Kader Abdul Rahman, 47, was sentenced to eight weeks' jail and banned from driving for five years for causing Mr Ng's death at about 12.30pm on Sept 4 last year.
He was also given another eight weeks' jail for a separate incident he was involved in a year earlier.
Assistant Public Prosecutor Dillon Kok said that in the tipper truck accident, the soil-laden vehicle stopped along Changi Coast Road that morning when one of its tyres burst.
A mechanic who came could not repair the tyre and Mr Ng arrived at about noon. He parked his lorry behind the truck and placed a breakdown sign about 10m behind that lorry. While Mr Ng was repairing the tyre, the truck driver stood next to the breakdown sign, diverting traffic away.
About half an hour later, the truck driver saw Kader's tipper truck approaching and waved frantically to the driver to slow down or change lanes. He jumped onto the adjacent grass verge and shouted at Mr Ng to get out of the way.
Kader failed to keep a proper lookout. He neither saw the breakdown sign, the truck driver and his frantic waving nor the stationary lorry.
APP Kok said when Kader realised a collision was imminent, he swerved his vehicle to the right but the front left corner of the vehicle collided forcefully into the back of the lorry, which surged forward, hit Mr Ng and the tipper truck.
Kader's truck then veered to its right and toppled over. He was trapped in his vehicle and had to be rescued.
In the other case, the court heard that Kader had failed to find his ex-girlfriend at her home and decided to look for her in the neighbourhood on Sept 6, 2014.
He saw Mr Rashid, 40, and his ex-girlfriend at the function hall at Kim Tian Road. The two men quarrelled and Kader attacked Mr Rashid, punching him repeatedly. Kader only stopped when someone shouted "Police!''. Mr Rashid suffered a broken nose from the incident.
