Jail and ban for driver who ran over pedestrian and her dog
Jail, ban for driver in hit-and-run accident
He was driving home at around 2am after his birthday celebration when his Mercedes-Benz SLK slammed into a pedestrian and her dog.
The woman, who was crossing the road with her pet, was badly hurt.
Her dog died on the spot.
Edwin Cheng Dawei, 34, did not stop to help and did not bother to see if he had hurt anyone.
Once he got home, he even made arrangements for immediate repairs to cover up the damage to his car.
Yesterday, the regional sales manager was jailed for seven months and banned from driving for five years.
Cheng had admitted to one count each of intentionally obstructing the course of justice, committing a negligent act that caused grievous hurt to Ms Chen Wei Wei, failing to help after the accident and moving his car from the accident scene without police authority.
The incident happened on Aug 16, 2014 - a day before Cheng's birthday.
At about 1.55am, Cheng was driving along Thomson Road - in the middle of the three-lane road - towards Marymount Road, after celebrating with friends at a pub in Liang Court.
As he neared Jalan Merlimau, near Thomson Medical Centre, he crashed into Ms Chen, 41, who was walking her dog and crossing the road from his left to right.
Cheng claimed to the authorities he was travelling between 60kmh and 70kmh. The speed limit on that stretch of road is 60kmh.
The impact was so great, Cheng's left wing mirror and some other car parts broke off.
Instead of stopping to check on Ms Chen, he continued driving. He stopped his car outside a petrol kiosk down the road to check the damage.
A kiosk attendant noticed that the front bumper of Cheng's car was partially torn off. Cheng told him he had been involved in an accident.
The attendant said Cheng smelt strongly of alcohol.
Cheng then quickly drove off with his front bumper scratching the road.
Ms Chen was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital with multiple injuries including a broken elbowand pooling of the blood from damaged blood vessels between the skull and inner layers of the skin.
She was warded for 18 days and given 60 days' hospitalisation leave.
Police tracked Cheng down from the broken car parts and went to his home on Aug 21, 2014, but he was not in. He did not return calls from the police until the next day, even though he had returned from an overseas trip on Aug 19.
REMORSEFUL
Yesterday, defence counsel Amolat Singh said in mitigation his client was remorseful for the injuries caused to Ms Chen, as well as her dog's death.
Mr Singh said the road was deserted at the time and Cheng did not remember seeing anyone crossing or attempting to cross the road then.
He added that after Cheng had braked slowly, he had stopped to check as he felt his car had rolled over something, but was puzzled as to what caused the damage to his car.
But District Judge Adam Nakhoda shot that down, saying Cheng could not have failed to realise he had been involved in a serious collision as the damage to his car was extensive.
The judge added that Cheng had persisted in distancing himself from the accident and had no concern for the consequences of his actions.
Two other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
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