[ad_1]
SINGAPORE: While approaching a zebra crossing, a taxi driver turned his attention to his mobile display terminal to make a reservation and collided with an 18-year-old student, throwing her onto the road.
The girl, who was in the middle of her A-Level exams, suffered injuries to the skull and brain and developed deficiencies in language and hearing functions.
The taxi driver, Eu Hock Leng, 64, was sentenced on Tuesday (December 1) to three months in jail and banned from driving for two years.
He pleaded guilty to one count of causing serious harm by a reckless act that endangered human life. This act was by checking and pressing the mobile screen or data terminal inside his cabin while driving and failing to patrol the road, resulting in a collision with the victim.
The court heard that Eu started his night shift around 5 p.m. on November 17, 2017. At approximately 7:30 p.m., he was driving on Bukit Batok West when he approached a zebra crossing at a speed of more than 20 km / h.
As he drove, he noticed that the mobile display terminal in his cabin indicated that there was a reservation.
He began to check and press the terminal and did not pay attention to what was in the path of his vehicle, and did not notice the zebra crossing.
As his taxi made its way up the elevated zebra crossing, it collided with the victim who was only a few meters from reaching the other side of the road.
The 18-year-old, who was crossing from right to left from Eu, was struck against the hood of the taxi before being thrown onto the road.
Eu felt an impact and saw something flying in front of the taxi and immediately stopped his vehicle and got out.
A passerby who was waiting for a bus heard a crash and ran to see the victim, who was face down on the ground. He asked Eu why he had been so careless before calling 995.
The victim was crying and vomiting, sleepy and on the verge of fainting. A friend of hers learned of the incident and rushed downstairs, seeing the defendant looking “very frantic” and repeatedly saying “I don’t know.”
She confronted him and asked him what had happened, and Eu said that he was driving slow and that his car did not have any dents or scratches from the accident.
He exclaimed “aiya”, before saying that he had taken a call and did not see the victim, regretting that he was so close to the sidewalk and almost made it, according to court documents.
VICTIM INJURIES
The victim was taken to the hospital with bruises to the brain, bruises to the head, a fractured skull and some loss of smell. She was protected for 15 days and her last check-up in January 2018 showed that she was fine and stable and her sense of smell was slowly improving.
He went through intensive rehabilitation treatment that included physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy for motor dysfunction and cognitive decline.
He had mild impairment in high language functions, complex working memory deficits and multitasking, and although he has recovered from the complications of an acute traumatic brain injury, he may develop related conditions as a result of his previous injuries in the future.
She never managed to complete her A-Level exams and experienced “a tremendous sense of loss” and other negative emotions, feeling very disabled due to her dependence on her family.
For serious injuries from a reckless act, Eu could have been imprisoned for up to four years, fined up to S $ 10,000, or both. You could have been banned from driving for life.
