Man jailed a week for fatal child accident
The driver who killed a five-year-old girl in 2009 was sentenced on Wednesday to a week in jail for negligent driving.
He was also given a five-year ban from driving all types of vehicles.
At around 8:15pm on 1 December 2009, Tijan Syafiq Selamat, 29, was speeding at 85 km/h along Punggol Field Road -- its speed limit was 50 km/h -- when he hit Zhao Linqian while she was crossing the road. She was flung 43m upon impact and died on the spot, reported The Straits Times.
The car salesman was also slapped with a S$1,000 fine for illegal modifications made to his Subaru Impreza WRX, which did not contribute to the accident, the court noted.
At the time of the accident, Zhao and her grandfather were on their way to Punggol Plaza for her piano lesson while Tijan was going to his mother's place to fetch his two-year-old son.
He was given the relatively light sentence after District Judge Eugene Teo said that the girl was partly at fault as she had suddenly released her grandfather's hand and crossed the road unexpectedly.
Tijan could have been jailed for up to two years, fined up to S$10,000 or both for negligent driving. The penalty for an illegally modified car is a fine of up to S$1,000, a three-month jail term or both.
