4 weeks' jail for driver in accident that cut victim in two
SINGAPORE — She took her eyes off the road to reach for a cloth on her dashboard and did not realise her van was veering to the left out of the lane she was in.
Because of her four seconds of negligence, Ma Kah Yian, 45, killed a man in a gruesome collision on Feb 26 last year, which severed the victim’s body in two, with his torso flung onto the seat to her left.
On Monday (March 13), a district court sentenced Ma to four weeks’ jail and a five-year driving ban, noting that the offence she had committed was one of negligence, rather than an intentional act.
After learning that Ma had thought of killing herself on numerous occasions after the accident, District Judge Low Wee Ping said: “(This was) an accident caused by negligence, not a rash act. Serve your imprisonment term and put it behind you.”
Ma broke down when the sentence was delivered.
The accident happened along Woodlands Avenue 2 at around 1.30pm on Feb 26 last year.
The court was told that Mr Annamalai Jeevanantham, 51, had parked his lorry in a vehicle bay along that road that day to have lunch with a colleague. The vehicle bay is a sheltered area under the Seletar Expressway (SLE) flyover where vehicles are permitted to stop along the side of the road.
When they finished their lunch and were starting to collect the light-reflecting cones they had placed behind the lorry, Ma exited the SLE onto the straight stretch of the two-lane road.
Moments later, she took her right hand off the steering wheel to reach for a pink-coloured cloth placed on the right-hand corner of the dashboard. It was not mentioned in court why she was reaching for the cloth.
Her van veered out of the lane and narrowly missed a bus parked behind the lorry, as well as Mr Annamalai’s colleague.
But within seconds, Ma knocked down a cone and then ploughed into Mr Annamalai.
Upon impact, his body was severed into two and the upper half of his body was flung into the van’s passenger seat.
Ma screamed at the sight and hurried out of the van.
Mr Annamalai, an Indian national, was killed on the spot.
On Monday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Si En noted that Ma had not noticed that she was veering for four seconds. Her failure to keep proper control of the vehicle for this duration pointed to significant negligence, she said.
As a result of that, the deceased suffered a gruesome death, she added, urging for a jail term of at least four weeks and a five-year driving disqualification.
When footage from her in-car camera was played in court on Monday, Ma told the court she dared not watch.
She also tendered a letter to express her remorse, writing that after the incident, she had wanted to end her life on several occasions.
Ma could have been jailed up to two years, or fined, or both.
http://todayonline.com/singapore/4-weeks-jail-driver-accident-cut-victim-two
SINGAPORE — She took her eyes off the road to reach for a cloth on her dashboard and did not realise her van was veering to the left out of the lane she was in.
Because of her four seconds of negligence, Ma Kah Yian, 45, killed a man in a gruesome collision on Feb 26 last year, which severed the victim’s body in two, with his torso flung onto the seat to her left.
On Monday (March 13), a district court sentenced Ma to four weeks’ jail and a five-year driving ban, noting that the offence she had committed was one of negligence, rather than an intentional act.
After learning that Ma had thought of killing herself on numerous occasions after the accident, District Judge Low Wee Ping said: “(This was) an accident caused by negligence, not a rash act. Serve your imprisonment term and put it behind you.”
Ma broke down when the sentence was delivered.
The accident happened along Woodlands Avenue 2 at around 1.30pm on Feb 26 last year.
The court was told that Mr Annamalai Jeevanantham, 51, had parked his lorry in a vehicle bay along that road that day to have lunch with a colleague. The vehicle bay is a sheltered area under the Seletar Expressway (SLE) flyover where vehicles are permitted to stop along the side of the road.
When they finished their lunch and were starting to collect the light-reflecting cones they had placed behind the lorry, Ma exited the SLE onto the straight stretch of the two-lane road.
Moments later, she took her right hand off the steering wheel to reach for a pink-coloured cloth placed on the right-hand corner of the dashboard. It was not mentioned in court why she was reaching for the cloth.
Her van veered out of the lane and narrowly missed a bus parked behind the lorry, as well as Mr Annamalai’s colleague.
But within seconds, Ma knocked down a cone and then ploughed into Mr Annamalai.
Upon impact, his body was severed into two and the upper half of his body was flung into the van’s passenger seat.
Ma screamed at the sight and hurried out of the van.
Mr Annamalai, an Indian national, was killed on the spot.
On Monday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Si En noted that Ma had not noticed that she was veering for four seconds. Her failure to keep proper control of the vehicle for this duration pointed to significant negligence, she said.
As a result of that, the deceased suffered a gruesome death, she added, urging for a jail term of at least four weeks and a five-year driving disqualification.
When footage from her in-car camera was played in court on Monday, Ma told the court she dared not watch.
She also tendered a letter to express her remorse, writing that after the incident, she had wanted to end her life on several occasions.
Ma could have been jailed up to two years, or fined, or both.
http://todayonline.com/singapore/4-weeks-jail-driver-accident-cut-victim-two
