No offence committed by Little India riot bus driver: AGC
No offence was committed by the bus driver at the centre of the Little India riot that occurred on 8 December last year, said the Attorney-General’s Chambers on Tuesday.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, spokespersons for the AGC said no further action will be taken against Lee Kim Huat, also known as Lim Hai Tiong, who was driving the bus that ran over Indian national Sakthivel Kumaravelu that night.
The accident resulted in Sakthivel’s death, and triggered a riot that caused the damage of 24 emergency response vehicles and left more than 40 police and SCDF officers injured.
Watch a video of the riot here:
Its decision, said the AGC, was based on evidence that included video footage from four cameras mounted on the bus and investigation papers from the Traffic Police. These, in turn, included an independent expert report commissioned for the investigations, written statements from all relevant witnesses, visits to the scene by investigators, prosecutors and forensic experts as well as autopsy and toxicology reports, as well as other medical evidence.
The AGC’s statement also detailed facts that it gleaned from findings:
First, Sakthivel was asked to leave the bus because of his misbehaviour, and he alighted from it accordingly, walking in an unsteady manner towards Race Course Road.
He had a blood alcohol level of 217mg/100ml of blood, a figure that is close to three times the legal limit for driving, and one that falls under the category “moderately to severely intoxicated”.
Sakthivel was seen in video footage to have started running after the bus shortly after it had moved off, and placed his right palm against the left side of the bus as it was moving. This in turn, aggravated by his alcoholic intoxication, caused him to lose his balance and fall into the path of the bus.
Throughout the incident, Lee was driving at between 5.6 to 5.9 km/h. His attention was engaged in avoiding the heavy human traffic near the bus, as well as negotiating between the vehicles along Tekka Lane.
When the accident occurred, Lee was filtering from Tekka Lane into Race Course Road. As he was watching out for oncoming traffic from his right, he could not be expected to or see that Sakthivel had run after the moving bus, or that he might fall into its path.
Also, the period between the contact with the bus made by Sakthivel and his fall spanned about four seconds.
Commenting on the findings, Attorney-General Steven Chong said the prosecution has studied all the facts carefully and concluded that Lee is not criminally liable for the accident.
“This was an unfortunate tragic accident, but the Prosecution’s duty remains to assess the facts objectively and to apply the law in an even-handed and fair way,” he added.
