Woman fined and banned from driving for fatal accident at Bukit Batok

Only construction worker Qin Yongzhou, 44, knew why he was standing in the middle of a lane as cars drove by.

Sadly, the Chinese national took the answer with him to the grave.

He was killed on Oct 4 last year after he was hit by a car driven by executive Karie Goh Siang Yin.

Ms Goh was yesterday fined $8,000 and banned from driving for five years after being convicted of causing death by a negligent act.

After leaving work early on the day of the incident, Ms Goh, 33, had visited her unwell grandmother in Bukit Batok.

She set off for her Boon Keng home at about 7.45pm and was driving in the right lane of Bukit Batok Avenue 2, which has two lanes on each side, when the accident happened.

Video footage from Ms Goh's in-car camera was shown during court proceedings.

She was driving at about 43kmh but sped up to 65kmh moments before the accident. The speed limit for that stretch is 50kmh.

Mr Qin could be seen standing still in the middle of the lane, just steps away from the raised centre divider.

CRASHED

Unable to react in time, Ms Goh crashed into the man.

According to court documents, Mr Qin was flung 7 metres and paramedics later pronounced him dead at the scene.

District Judge Carrie Chan repeatedly asked what Mr Qin was doing standing still in the middle of the road, calling it "quite unusual, even for someone who was trying to cross the road".

Deputy Public Prosecutor Vincent Ong said it was not disputed that there was some contributory negligence from the man, who should not have been standing in the middle of the road.

In mitigation, defence lawyer Fong Chee Yang told the court that his client had been traumatised by the accident, and has not been back behind the wheel.

Before sentencing, Judge Chan noted that Ms Goh had been going above the speed limit, but that after viewing the in-car camera footage, there was some element of contributory negligence.

lawsm@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Nov 18, 2014.
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