Jail for drink driver who drove with his 2 children in car and hit pedestrian in fatal crash

SINGAPORE – A man with a prior drink driving conviction was sentenced to 11 years’ jail and a fine of $12,000 on Feb 2 after he committed a similar offence in 2023, in which his car

struck and killed a pedestrian

.

He had been driving at an “excessive speed” of between 111kmh and 122kmh in an area where the speed limit was 70kmh, the prosecution said.

His two young children, who were in the car at the time, were also hurt in the crash.

The 46-year-old Australian man, who is a Singapore permanent resident, was found to have 145 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. This was almost double the prescribed limit of 80mg.

For causing the pedestrian’s death by driving in a dangerous manner, he was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences for a period of 15 years from his release date.

He had pleaded guilty to drink driving and causing the pedestrian’s death, but intends to appeal against his sentence. His bail was set at $40,000 on Feb 2.

He cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the children’s identities.

On April 23, 2023, the man drove a BMW M3 Coupe to a birthday party in Turf Club Road in the Bukit Timah area with his children at around 10am.

He drank some glasses of wine at the event, and had his final drink at around 1.30pm.

Shortly before 2pm, he secured his children, then aged three and four, in booster seats in the rear of the car and drove off.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Dillon Kok said: “At that time, he felt lethargic, as he had stayed up during the night to look after his newborn baby.

“To add to that, he had a runny nose and cough, and had taken Cetirizine, an antihistamine, at around 9am in the morning.”

At around 2pm, the man drove the car along Dunearn Road towards Bukit Timah Road. The area had a speed limit of 70kmh.

The vehicle was near Tan Kah Kee MRT station when the pedestrian, a 64-year-old retiree, was standing by the roadside ahead, less than 100m away from an overhead bridge.

The DPP said the pedestrian was making his way across the road when “the car barrelled into him from his right with great impact”.

The driver did not slow down or apply his brakes before the crash, the prosecutor said.

“It was only after the crash that the accused realised that he had collided into a person. He jammed his brakes, and the car veered into the centre lane of (Dunearn Road),” the prosecutor said.

“By then, the accused’s children were crying loudly from the impact of the crash, which also shattered both the front and rear windscreens of the car.”

The offender then alerted the police, and officers who arrived at the scene arrested him after he failed a preliminary breath test.

The authorities later obtained a blood sample from him, which showed that he had 145mg of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.

The court heard that the man’s three-year-old child suffered an abrasion on the scalp, while the older one complained of abdominal pain.

Both were taken to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and were discharged the next day.

Without revealing details, DPP Kok said the man had been convicted of drink driving in late January 2015, and was fined $3,000.

He was also disqualified from driving all classes of vehicles for two years.