HIT a cabby or bus driver and expect to spend four weeks behind bars.
And if you are drunk, make that no less than six months to a year.
An Appeals Judge put offenders on notice that this would be the court's benchmark on such assaults in order to protect public transport workers.
An "unmistakable signal must be sent out that no such attacks will be tolerated," said Justice V.K. Rajah in tripling the jail term of a passenger who had beaten a cabby. In more severe cases, the courts will "not shy away from more draconian" jail terms.
Explaining why in his written judgment released on Tuesday, the judge said there was little doubt that 'public transport workers are more vulnerable to criminal violence than their counterparts in most other professions'.
"They are constantly exposed on the service front line and, very often, are left to fend for themselves when confronted with difficult and/or unruly passengers."
In July, businessman Wong Hoi Len, 50, appealed before Justice Rajah against his sentence in a lower court of a month's jail for hurting cabby Toon Chin Joon. Mr Toon,who suffered from an underlying heart disease,died of natural causes after the attack.
He had come out of his cab in a fury after his passenger, Wong, had thrown up. A scuffle followed, and ended only
when the cabby stopped moving. Paramedics who arrived shortly thereafter pronounced him dead.
Wong's lawyer Tan Siah Yong had argued for a fine, as his client had told the cabby he was about to throw up and had asked to be dropped off so he could walk the rest of the way home. But the cabby did not stop.
Wong had also offered to compensate the dead man's mother to show remorse.
But the judge said it was surprising Wong had the temerity to appeal against a rather restrained sentence. By doing so, he had compounded his initial folly of a thuggish assault.
He upped Wong's jail term of one month to three. His judgment underscored the severity of the climb in the
number of attacks against cab and bus drivers.
ComfortDelGro spokesman Tammy Tan said assaults and robberies involving the firm's cabbies had tripled to 40 forthe first eight months of this year,against the 12 for the whole of last year.
There were also 25 assaults against its bus captains and inspectors last year and 16 in the first eight months of this year.
Citing a book, Violence At Work, Justice Rajah noted that taxi drivers were at the greatest risk of violence among people who worked alone.
The authors noted that night-time driving was most dangerous and that violence was triggered by drunkenness.
Justice Rajah said the 'catalogue of injuries' inflicted on Mr Toon showed that what took place in the wee hours of May 19 was a "relentless and entirely one-sided pummelling of the victim by Wong".
He said punishing such offenders severely would confirm the court's commitment that "those who are vulnerable, and those providing the public with a service, deserve and warrant special protection".
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Sep 6, 2008.
