71-year-old forklift driver, Leow Bah Bee was sentenced to 9 days imprisonment for causing grievous hurt by acting negligently.
He had failed to check his blindspots properly before reversing his forklift and ran over the legs of a 68-year-old man who was standing behind.
The man suffered an open fracture in his right leg, and ended up needing to amputate lower left leg.
What happened
The incident happened on 22 June at about 2020, Leow and the victim were working with Hoy San Stevedoring at the time of the incident.
At about 9.35am, Leow was unloading steel plates using the forklift, which weighed 16 tonnes, and the man was standing about 2.5m behind the forklift counting the steel pipes; he was facing away from the forklift.
Leow turned his head to the left and right to check if anyone was in the path of his forklift, but failed to check his blindspots properly and hadn’t seen the victim.
He then reversed the forklift into the man and ran over his lower legs, and the victim had no time to react.
The victim then passed out and was sent to the hospital where he was found to have suffered severe mangling to his lower limbs, along with other injuries.
He ended up having his left leg amputated.