Man, 26, causes CTE chain collision driving mum's car without licence, flees in 'panic' to catch Phuket flight
It was apparently a planned trip.Kerr Puay Hian |
An unemployed man found his mother's car unattended and decided to take it out for a ride without her permission.
Toh Xin Tian, now 26 years old, did not have a driver's licence but still managed to drive across the island for two hours without incident.
Then, on the way back to his friend's house, he rear-ended a vehicle, causing a multi-vehicle collision, which left two people injured.
He fled the scene, left the car at his friend's house, and took a Grab ride to the airport to catch the flight for his planned trip to Phuket, Thailand.
He claimed he was "in a panic".
Fetched friend from airport in mother's car
According to court documents, Toh was at his Woodlands home on Jun. 4, 2022, when, at around 1pm, he realised the key to his mother's car had been left in the ignition.
He decided to drive the car without his mother's permission to fetch his friend from Changi Airport.
Three-car collision
After picking up his friend, he drove both of them to Chinatown for lunch before driving to his friend's house, also in Woodlands, to prepare for their flight to Phuket later in the evening.
On the way, along Central Expressway (CTE) in the direction of Seletar Expressway (SLE), he rear-ended a car when a car ahead of them had to slow down.
The eventual three-car collision caused a 34-year-old female driver and a 35-year-old female passenger to be injured.
The driver suffered shoulder and neck strain, while the female passenger had pain in her head and was bleeding from the lips.
Drove off to catch Phuket flight
After the collision, Toh drove off. He claimed he was "in panic" and he did so "in order to catch his flight".
He then drove to his friend's house and left for the airport after booking a Grab ride.
Gets jail
Toh was eventually arrested and charged in court with multiple traffic offences, including driving without due care and attention causing hurt to two people, driving without license and motor insurance and failing to stop after an accident.
He pleaded guilty to five charges, including a charge under the Moneylender's Act for allowing an unlicensed moneylender to use his bank account in a separate incident.
In his sentencing submissions, the prosecutor noted that a custodial sentence for Toh was warranted as not only was he an unlicensed driver who was caught because of an accident, he was the cause of the accident.
He also drove across Singapore for over two hours and had a passenger in his car.
Toh was sentenced to one month and eight weeks in jail, a fine of S$33,300, and a two-year disqualification from holding any class of driving licence.
