K
Kenshin Uesugi
Guest
Jan 7, 2011
Lorry hit 140kmh trying to beat cops
Driver who refused to cooperate in breathalyser test gets jail and fine
By Khushwant Singh
A LORRY ran a police roadblock, beat a red light and blazed down Jurong Town Hall Road at 140kmh trying to outrun a pursuing police car early on July 6 last year.
The driver, Bagavath Singh Jayakkumar, 31, was eventually cornered after the 3km high-speed chase. At the police station later, the Indian national refused to breathe properly into a breathalyser.
On Thursday, he was jailed a month for dangerous driving and fined $2,500 for failing to provide a specimen of his breath for the breathalyser test.
The court heard that police conducting checks at a roadblock along Jurong Town Hall Road at 1.20am that day had signalled him to stop.
But he simply drove through, eventually reaching a speed that was twice the 70kmh allowed on that road, even as a patrol car, siren blaring, stayed on his tail.
Jayakkumar was forced to stop at the junction of Boon Lay Way and Jurong East Street 31, as there was no way through the vehicles that were waiting at the red light.
Smelling strongly of alcohol and failing the breathalyser test conducted by an officer, he was arrested and escorted to Clementi Police Division for another attempt to measure the alcohol level in his breath.
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.
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