Former Grab driver jailed for crashing into 70-year-old woman, causing her to lose her leg
A 25-year-old man who crashed his rented car into a 70-year-old woman, causing her to lose her leg, was on Monday (5 November) given a one-week jail sentence by the State Courts.
Ong Jian Min, alias Wang Jianmin, a tertiary student and former Grab driver, will also be disqualified from driving for two years after his release from prison.
The court heard that at about 11.30pm on 29 June last year, the victim Yew Kwai Lin, her husband and a taxi driver got out of their vehicles on the Seletar Expressway towards Central Expressway, after the Lentor exit.
The victim’s husband’s car and the taxi had gotten into a side-swipe accident. Both vehicles stopped in the first lane on the expressway, with the Honda parked in front of the yellow Hyundai taxi.
Shortly after, another car that was behind the stationary taxi tried to switch to the second lane. The car had its left signal indicator switched on.
Behind that car was Ong, who had been ferrying private-hire passengers in his red rented Nissan Latio for about nine hours that day with a dinner break in between, and was heading towards River Valley with two friends.
But Ong failed to keep a proper lookout on the road in front of him. By the time he saw the car trying to switch lanes and realised that it was stationary, he “was too close, and travelling at too fast a speed, that he could not stop his vehicle in time”, said Deputy Public Prosector Esther Tang.
In order to avoid a collision, Ong jammed his brakes, causing his car to skid and veer to the right and crashing into the centre guard-railing of the expressway. His vehicle subsequently collided with the victim, who was walking behind the taxi, and thereafter with the taxi.
The victim was pinned in between the rear of the taxi and the front of the Nissan car. The taxi driver moved forward in order to release the victim and she was sent to hospital via ambulance.
As a result of her injuries, she had to undergo an amputation of her right leg above the knee, and was hospitalised for 58 days.
At the time of the accident the weather was fine, road surface dry, traffic flow moderate and visibility good.
Ong will start serving sentence on 10 December.
For causing grievous hurt by doing an act so negligently as to endanger human life, Ong could have been jailed for two years and fined up to $5,000.
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