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WOMAN DRIVER CRASHED INTO CYCLIST BUT THOUGHT HE WAS TREE BRANCH
29 Sep 2010
SOURCE: The New Paper
HER car rammed into a cyclist from the rear so hard that he flew and hit the front windscreen, cracking part of it, before rolling onto the road.
But Cleopatra Wong Yuin Ping, 30, thought the body that smashed into the windscreen was a rotten tree branch that had fallen.
She did not bother to stop and continued driving her car along Holland Road.
Wong was also unaware that her victim’s bicycle was stuck in the undercarriage of the Lexus ES300 belonging to her father, despite the noise of the bicycle scraping against the road.
The bicycle was dragged for about 2km before it was dislodged.
When Wong, who was a teacher then, reached home, she went to bed.
She realised something was wrong only when she woke up in the morning and found out that the police had towed away the five-year-old Lexus.
Taken to court over the accident, Wong claimed that the soundproofing of the Lexus was so good that she thought the “sounds” she heard were caused by the tree branch.
Last month, she was fined a total of $2,400 – $800 on each of three charges – and disqualified from driving for a year.
She had pleaded guilty to inconsiderate driving, failing to stop after an accident and failing to render assistance after an accident.
The court heard that Wong was driving home along Holland Road at about 5.15am on Oct 19, 2008, when she hit the rear of a bicycle ridden by MrMuhammad Asri Aris.
At 60kmh
She was travelling at 60kmh and had just passed the speed camera at the junction of Holland Road and Minden Road.
The impact caused Mr Muhammad Asri, 19, to be flung onto the front windscreen of the car before landing on the left side of the road.
The impact of the crash caused the windscreen to be cracked on the left side.
Wong continued driving, dragging the bicycle stuck on the undercarriage of the car until the junction of Holland Road and Leedon Road, where it was finally dislodged.
Mr Muhammad Asri was warded in the Singapore General Hospital for two days with a fractured left shoulder, a cut on his forehead and multiple abrasions.
He was given medical leave for about a month.
The court heard that Wong had gone to popular nightspot Zouk to look for her cousin who had not returned home.
The cousin was staying with Wong’s family at Ming Teck Park, off Sixth Avenue, because her parents were in China.
Wong’s lawyer, Mr P O Ram, said in her mitigation that she could not find her cousin and decided to return home.
After the Minden Road junction, there was a canopy of trees along the road.
Suddenly, Wong heard a bang on the left side of her windscreen and looked in that direction.
The glass was cracked and she assumed a rotten tree branch had fallen on the windsreen.
Mr Ram said the car was a 3000cc Lexus with a good soundproofing system.
Dents
When Wong heard some sounds at the rear of the car, she thought that it was caused by the branch.
When she reached home, she noticed a few dents and scratches on the left of the front bumper.
Mr Ram said that Wong felt that there was no urgency to report the incident as it involved only a branch.
She went to bed with the intention of making a report and informing the insurance company later in the morning.
After the police towed the car away before 8am the same day, Wong’s brother called them at about 9am. He was told by an officer to ask the driver to contact him.
Wong called the officer immediately.
Mr Ram told the court that Wong regretted not stopping and checking the car when she heard the bang. She has not driven since the accident.
Wong resigned from teaching after giving birth to her first child in December last year.
She intends to return to teaching next year, the court was told.
Noting that the incident happened in the early hours of the morning, District Judge Salina Ishak said that it was possible that the shadows cast from the canopy of trees would have had an impact on her line of sight, resulting in her mistaken assumption about the “object” that had struck her windscreen.
The judge said: “I was of the view that the present case was not one involving a high level of culpability evidenced by a wilful or reckless disregard of the rules of the road and an apparent disregard for the great danger caused to others.”
She added that from the facts, it appeared that there was no deliberate attempt on Wong’s part not to stop in order to evade arrest.
“(Wong) had also immediately called the police once she was informed by the brother.”
The prosecution is appealing against Wong’s sentence for the charge of failing to render assistance after an accident. It carries a maximum fine of $3,000 or a jail term of a year.
