SINGAPORE, June 7 — He knew that foreign workers frequently crossed Sungei Kadut Avenue, but he failed to keep a proper lookout when turning onto the road in his tipper truck.
Choo Teck Kuang ended up colliding into a foreign worker on his bicycle. Md Mostafa, who was heading to work, succumbed to his injuries in hospital about two hours later.
Yesterday, Choo, 55, was sentenced to two weeks’ jail for causing the death of the 34-year-old Bangladeshi by a negligent act. The Malaysian was also disqualified from holding or getting all classes of driving licences for five years after his release.
At the time of the accident, Choo was employed by HSC Pipeline Engineering, located at No. 36 Sungei Kadut Avenue.
The court heard that on Aug 29 last year, at about 7.15am, Mostafa was cycling from his Mandai Estate dormitory to work at the area. The weather was fine, traffic flow was light and the road surface was dry then.
As Choo was about to exit his company’s premises, he stopped for less than a minute to give way to vehicles travelling on Sungei Kadut Avenue. While making a right turn onto the main road, he failed to notice Mostafa cycling in front of his tipper truck.
Choo drove forward, collided into Mostafa and ran him over.
He felt an impact underneath his truck as if he had run over an object, but continued with the turn before immediately stopping his vehicle on the side of the road.
The incident was captured on his company’s closed circuit television camera.
When Choo alighted, he noticed Mostafa lying on the road beside a bicycle, which was bent out of shape.
Mostafa was taken in an unconscious state to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, where he eventually died from critical injuries at 8.50am.
The tipper truck was inspected after the incident, revealing no mechanical defects or possible mechanical failures.
Although Choo claimed he had checked his blind spot before moving forward, the Health Sciences Authority carried out a blind spot analysis and found that from certain angles, Mostafa would have been partially visible to Choo, and he would have been fully visible in the truck’s circular mirror.
For causing death by a negligent act, Choo could have been jailed up to two years and fined. — TODAY
