Doctor jailed over car accident that injured 96-year-old woman, who later died

SINGAPORE: A doctor was on Monday (Jun 13) jailed for one week and banned from driving for two years after injuring a 96-year-old woman in a car accident.

The victim, Mdm Heng Fong Boey, died on Oct 12, 2019, four days after the accident.

Dr Ernest Fu Weizhong, 39, a consultant at a hospital, pleaded guilty to one charge of causing grievous hurt by a negligent act that endangered human life.

Mdm Heng was in a car driven by her son, Mr Soon Jin Joke, when they were hit head-on by Dr Fu's car on Tampines Avenue 12.

Dr Fu admitted to failing to keep a proper lookout and to give way to the car driven by Mr Soon, which had the right of way.

Another charge for a negligent act that caused hurt to Mr Soon, 68, was considered for sentencing.

The court heard that Mr Soon was speeding at the time of the collision. Mdm Heng, who was sitting in the rear passenger seat, was not wearing a seatbelt.

WHAT HAPPENED

At about 8pm on Oct 8, 2019, Dr Fu was driving along Tampines Avenue 12 towards Tampines Avenue 9. He was on a right-turning lane, and intended to turn onto Tampines Expressway (TPE).

The road he was on had two lanes for vehicles to turn right onto the TPE, with the traffic guided by a green arrow traffic light signal.

In the absence of the green arrow signal, vehicles are permitted to execute discretionary right turns.

Dr Fu came to a brief stop at the junction leading to the turn-off to the TPE along with other vehicles that were waiting to turn as well.

Mr Soon's car was travelling in the opposite direction on the rightmost lane along Tampines Avenue 12 at the time.

As Mr Soon's car approached the junction, he saw that the traffic lights were lit green in his favour and continued driving straight.

At this point, Dr Fu made a discretionary right turn after the other vehicles ahead of him moved off. The green arrow traffic signal was not lit up at the time.

Dr Fu did not stop at the white line to look for oncoming traffic from the opposite direction before making the turn. As a result, the front left side of his car collided with the front of Mr Soon's car.

Mdm Heng was thrown forward and wedged at the front seat of the car.

The impact also caused Mr Soon's car to roll backwards and hit a car behind him. Debris from the collision flew towards another car travelling on the middle lane, damaging its front. 

The collision was captured by in-car cameras in Dr Fu's car and the car in the middle lane. The videos were played in court.

Mdm Heng was taken to the hospital, where she was found to have bleeding in the skull and fractures at her cervical spine, rib, hip, thigh and pubic bones.

She also had low blood pressure. She was admitted to the high dependency ward after being resuscitated.

Her cause of death was determined to be hypertensive heart disease with pulmonary fat embolism following skeletal fractures.

She did not receive active intervention due to her family's decision to limit the extent of care, and eventually succumbed to her injuries, court documents stated.

Forensic analysis showed that Mr Soon's car was travelling at about 71kmh prior to braking, and at around 80kmh while travelling along Tampines Avenue 12 before that.

The speed limit on Tampines Avenue 12 is 60kmh.

The prosecution asked for one to two weeks' jail and a driving ban of two years, arguing that Dr Fu should have been able to see Mr Soon's car as it was already approaching the junction when he made the discretionary right turn.

The defence argued that Mdm Heng's injuries were likely to have been more serious because the car she was in was speeding and she was not wearing a seatbelt.

In response, the prosecution said that Dr Fu's negligence remained a "substantial cause" of the accident.

Dr Fu could have been jailed up to two years, fined up to S$5,000 or both.