Cabbie fined, gets 3-year driving ban over negligence
TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — A taxi driver who hit a motorcyclist due to his negligence, causing him to be flung off the vehicle and to suffer severe injuries, was yesterday disqualified from driving for three years and fined S$4,000.
Lim Ah Lee, 55, had admitted to one count of causing grievous hurt through a negligent act he committed on Sept 5 last year.
On that day, before 7.20pm, Lim was driving his taxi along the right lane of the Pan-Island Expressway towards Changi Airport.
The court heard that at the 13.6km mark of the expressway, he was about three to four car-lengths behind another car when the driver stepped on the brakes and the car came to a stop.
Lim failed to slow down in time and in a bid to avoid a collision, he swerved to his left and collided into a motorbike. The bike and the motorcyclist, 52-year-old Michael Chew, were flung some 25m away.
Another car collided into Lim’s taxi as the accident occurred, but the car driver did not sustain any injuries.
When dashboard-camera footage of the accident was played in court yesterday, an audible gasp was heard from those in the courtroom.
Mr Chew suffered from rib and collarbone fractures, multiple abrasions, as well as bleeding inside the skull, among other injuries.
When asked by District Judge Kenneth Yap why he did not offer any compensation to Mr Chew, Lim — who represented himself in court — said that he thought “(Mr Chew) would have claimed it from insurance”.
Asking for a S$4,000 fine and a three-year disqualification from driving, the prosecution said that in swerving into the path of Mr Chew, the motorcyclist had “barely any reaction time”. It was “fortunate” that there were no deaths resulting from the accident, even though Mr Chew had sustained serious injuries.
The prosecution also said that Lim had been driving on the right lane for a “considerable amount of time”, and he was aware that there was vehicular traffic in the next lane.
Lim pleaded for leniency, saying in Mandarin through an interpreter that a three-year disqualification was “manifestly excessive”.
He also said that the swerve he made to the left was “a natural reaction”. The court heard that he is still working as a taxi driver, though the taxi company he works for was not disclosed.
District Judge Yap, in sentencing Lim, said that such an accident “could have been avoided”, and was the result of Lim’s inability to react fast enough to the car stopping ahead of him.
For causing grievous hurt through a negligent act, Lim could have been jailed two years, or fined up to S$5,000, or both. If he does not pay the S$4,000 fine, he will have to serve a two-week jail sentence.
