Judge rules that she was not blatantly ignoring traffic rules and so was less culpable

 A negligent driver, who was confused by faulty traffic signals and knocked down a motorcyclist, had her jail sentence cut yesterday after an appeal, with the judge ruling that she was not blatantly ignoring traffic rules and so was less culpable.

Lee-Teh Har Eng, 57, was earlier sentenced to one week in jail after the accident left 56-year-old Lo Weng Kwong hospitalised for two months.

Her sentence was reduced to one day in jail and a S$5,000 fine, which is the maximum fine for the offence of grievous hurt by a negligent act endangering human life.

The court order to ban her from driving for three years remains.

On Jan 18 last year at around 8pm, Lee was driving along Tampines Avenue 12 towards a slip road leading to Tampines Expressway, when she saw a green arrow signal blinking. When the traffic light went off, she continued to turn right and her car collided with Mr Lo’s oncoming motorcycle.

Mr Lo suffered open fractures in his right leg and left forearm, and was hospitalised until March 4 last year. He was given hospitalisation leave for another six months after he was discharged.

Judicial Commissioner See Kee Oon said that while the accident caused Mr Lo “significant” harm, that alone does not point to the need for a custodial term.

In allowing Lee’s appeal, he said that “objective evidence” showed Lee was likely “distracted and disoriented” in an unfamiliar and unusual traffic-signal setting that displayed a green turning light with neither red nor amber signals.

Referring to a video recording obtained from Lee’s in-car camera, he noted that there were both a “green right arrow” and a “green man” at the traffic-light junction. “Within that span of seconds, (Lee) was in all likelihood focusing on manoeuvring her vehicle towards the access point to the slip road, and when she saw a green light emerge there, while the vehicles facing her at the junction appeared to remain stationary, she became confused and decided to execute the turn,” he said, concluding that she was “not grossly negligent”. It was a “momentary but unfortunate lapse of attention”, he added, pointing out that she was “not blatantly and consciously ignoring common traffic rules” or speeding.

“Hindsight may help inform us that logical and rational behaviour do not always feature clearly in explaining human conduct and human fallibility, especially where accidents are concerned,” Judicial Commissioner See said.

He also took into account Lee’s “exceptionally high” level of remorse and relatively clean driving record in her past 27 years of driving as mitigating factors. Citing Mr Lo in his letter to the court, the judge said that Lee had visited Mr Lo on several occasions and expressed “deep regret and concern”.

Taking into account the trend towards more custodial sentences being meted out for offences of such nature, he said that this is not indicative of a new sentencing benchmark.

“Each case has to be assessed based on its aggravating and mitigating factors,” he said.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by KELLY NG

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