A 64 year old male driver, Kong Tong Ngok, was today (27 Jan) sentenced to a jail term of four weeks and slapped with a driving ban of one and a half years for his reckless actions back in June 2020.
He was charged with a count of causing grievous hurt by a rash act endangering the life of a motorcylist, who was working as a food deliveryman.
Knocked motorcyclist with his car on purpose
Kong was working as a food deliveryman at the time of the incident as well.
On 9 June 2020, at about 11.55am, Kong had parked his car at the side of the road at Kadayanallur Street in Tanjong Pagar while waiting to collect his food order when he met the victim.
The victim, 58, was on his bike and had realised that the road was jammed up with cars which were stopping and parked illegally on the road side.
Kong was at the opposite lane where his vehicle was the only one which blocked the road so the victim walked over to ask him to move forward to clear the road.
Kong however, ignored the victim’s signals to move forward.
The victim then took out his phone wanting to take a picture of Kong’s vehicle obstructing the road.
That was when Kong moved his vehicle forward on purpose with the intention to knock the victim.
Victim injured, given 14 days hospitalisation leave
Even though the victim had extended his had out to the bonnet to protect himself, Kong did not stop moving forward.
As a result, the victim fell backwards and injured his right wrist and was sent to hospital after a security guard in the vicinity witnessed it and phoned the ambulance and police.
The victim was diagnosed with a fractured wrist and tenderness over his shoulders at the hospital and was given 14 days of hospitalisation leave.
Kong’s plea
Three to four weeks of jailed was sought by the prosecution for Kong together with one and a half years of driving ban.
He mitigated through his lawyer that he regretted his actions and was not in the best of health after his wife had divorced him recently.
He had also not budged when signalled to move forward because he thought that his order was going to be ready.
He had wanted to drive off when the victim took a photo as he did not want the victim to send the picture for enforcement action as he could not afford to pay fines.
He had also intended to apologise to the victim and also admitted his mistakes when caught by the Police.
Penalties
Kong could have been jailed up to four years and/or fined up to $10,000 for his role in causing grievous hurt through a rash act endangering human life.
Image source: Google Maps