Man spared jail over collision

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Oct 30, 2010

Man spared jail over collision
He dozed off and hit a church-goer

By Elena Chong & Goh Chin Lian

Madam Mok Sow Loon, 76, and her husband Wee Song Mong, 77, were on the way to mass on the morning of Nov 8 last year when Ng ploughed his car into them. Madam Mok died. -- ST FILE PHOTO

A BUSINESS development manager on Thursday escaped a jail term for having hit and killed a church-goer near the Church of the Holy Spirit along Upper Thomson Road last November. Ng Jui Chuan, 34, who could have been jailed for up to two years, was instead fined a total of $9,500 he was also banned from driving for three years.

The crux of the hearing was whether his falling asleep at the wheel moments before he ploughed into Madam Mok Sow Loon, 76, and her husband was one of negligence, or of rashness. He had been charged and tried on the charge of causing death by a rash act - for which a jail term of up to five years would have been the norm - but District Judge Low Wee Ping amended the charges after the trial so his sentence was on the lesser charge of negligence.

The prosecution may appeal. That stretch of road outside the Catholic church made the news once again, three months after Madam Mok's death, when former Olympian Tan Eng Yoon, 82, lost his life. He was then crossing the road after having attended mass at the church.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.
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