Man fined for riding motorcycle over traffic marshall's foot at swab test centre

SINGAPORE: After completing his swab test at the F1 Pit building, a man refused to comply with a traffic marshall's instructions on how to exit and instead rode his motorcycle over the man's foot.

He also cursed at another traffic marshall as he was unhappy that the exit was very far away.

Sivakumar Sengal Rajan, 51, was fined S$3,000 on Tuesday (Jan 26) for one charge of causing hurt by a rash act and another of using abusive words. A third charge of uttering an expletive at a traffic marshall was taken into consideration.

The court heard that Sivakumar went to the F1 Pit Building along Raffles Boulevard for a swab test on the morning of Nov 8 last year.

After taking the test, he walked towards his motorcycle in the car park at about 9.45am, and saw cones and tape in front of his vehicle.

As the area in front of his motorcycle was cordoned off, he could not ride the vehicle forward to exit and instead had to make reverse the bike and make a detour. 

A 54-year-old traffic marshall at the scene told Sivakumar to make the short detour and refused to remove the cones and tape when Sivakumar asked him to.

Sivakumar cursed at the traffic marshall and inched his motorcycle forward, causing the cones and tape to fall, before running his bike over the marshall's foot.

The marshall suffered a slight injury to his shin and did not seek medical attention. 

As Sivakumar rode out, another traffic marshall directed him towards the appropriate exit, but Sivakumar was unhappy that the exit was "very far away", the prosecutor said.

He shouted an expletive at the woman before riding off.

In mitigation, Sivakumar said he had been stressed out that day and was late for work. He had to go for his swab test in a hurry and lost his cool, he said.

He said he works as a security guard, and has children and a wife who depend on him.

For causing hurt by a rash act, he could have been jailed for up to a year, fined up to S$5,000 or both. For using abusive words, he could have been jailed up to six months, fined up to S$5,000,or both.