Public Prosecutor v Abdul Aziz Bin Osman

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Jeffrey Sim Mong Heng
• Judgment Date: 17 October 2008
• Neutral Citation: [2008] SGDC 303
• Published date: 06 November 2008
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Plaintiff Counsel: Christine Liu (Assistant Public Prosecutor)
• Defendant Counsel: Dominic Nagulendran (Joann Ting LLC)

17 October 2008

District Judge Jeffrey Sim:

1 The accused, a 52-year old man, faced two charges in relation to his driving of a motor lorry on 7 January 2008 at about 7.26am which caused the death of a 24 year old woman who was riding a motorcycle and grievous hurt to a 25 year old woman who was the pillion rider on the motorcycle.

2 According to the Statement of Facts which the accused admitted to without qualification, on that fateful day, the accused was driving his motor lorry along Changi South Street 1, towards a dead end. He was travelling along the left lane of the two-lane, two-way road, at a speed of about 50 km/h. He had just picked up some of his company’s workers and was about to alight them at his company’s premises located at No. 13 Changi South Street 1. Upon reaching the front of the unit at No. 36 Changi South Street 1, the accused stopped his motor lorry momentarily on the left lane of the road, before proceeding to turn right into his company’s premises located on the opposite side of the road at unit No. 13. Prior to turning right, the accused did not signal his intention to do so. At this time, the deceased who was riding a motorcycle together with the pillion rider, was approaching the accused’s motor lorry from behind, travelling straight in the right lane of the road at a moderate speed. As the accused executed the right turn from the left lane of the road, he failed to exercise due care and attention and failed to keep a proper lookout for vehicles travelling from his rear right and right, thus encroaching into the path of the motorcycle ridden by the deceased, resulting in a collision with the motorcycle, thereby causing the death of the deceased and serious bodily injury namely a left femur spiral fracture to the pillion rider.

3 The two charges that the accused faced were the following:

(a) the first charge of doing a negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide punishable under s 304A of the Penal Code (Cap 224), which provides for a maximum of two years’ imprisonment or a fine or both;

(b) the second charge of doing an act so negligently as to endanger human life punishable under s 338 of the Penal Code, which provides for a maximum of two years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to $1,000 or both.

4 On 14 October 2008, the accused pleaded guilty before me to the first charge, and consented to having the second charge taken into consideration when sentencing. In mitigation, his counsel on his behalf tendered his unreserved apologies to the family of the deceased and to the other victim and her family. Counsel submitted that on that fateful morning, there was a container parked by the side of the kerb parallel to where the accused had stopped his vehicle before making the turn which resulted in the accident. The accused did look to see if there were any vehicles coming from his rear side and he thought that there was none. On hindsight, the presence of the container may have prevented him from noticing the oncoming motorcycle.

5 Counsel relied on several cases, including Mohamad Iskandar bin Basri v PP [2006] 4 SLR 440 in support of his submission that the appropriate sentence in this case should be a fine of between $6,000 and $7,000 and not a custodial sentence. However, counsel further submitted that the accused would not be able to pay this amount of fine and urged the...