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SINGAPORE: A former chief of the air force was fined S$5,000 (US$3,860) and banned from driving for five years on Wednesday (Jul 1) for driving into a maid who was pushing a toddler in a stroller.<\/p>\n
The woman was flung backwards on impact when the driver made the discretionary right turn into her and the two-year-old boy at the junction of Pasir Panjang Road and Harbour Drive.<\/p>\n
The court issued a gag order prohibiting the publication of any information that could identify the boy.<\/p>\n
Goh Yong Siang, a 74-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty to one count of driving without due care and attention, resulting in grievous hurt to the woman.<\/p>\n
A second charge of injuring the boy was taken into consideration.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Goh was driving along Harbour Drive at about 8.45am on May 17, 2024.<\/p>\n
He waited at a signalised cross junction for the lights to turn green in his favour.<\/p>\n
When the lights in his direction turned green, Goh made a discretionary right turn into Pasir Panjang Road towards Telok Blangah Road. However, he did not stop in the right-turn pocket to keep a lookout for oncoming pedestrians.<\/p>\n
At the same time, a 44-year-old maid was crossing the road with a toddler in a stroller. The green man signal was lit in their favour.<\/p>\n
Goh failed to notice the pair even though they were plainly in his line of sight, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n
While he was not speeding, he could not brake in time and his vehicle struck them.<\/p>\n
The woman was flung several metres backwards by the impact. A passer-by called the police.<\/p>\n
The maid was taken to hospital with her face bleeding and given 42 days’ of hospitalisation leave. The boy was given outpatient treatment for injuries such as bruising and abrasions.<\/p>\n
After being discharged, the maid was on bed rest and had to recuperate at her employer’s mother-in-law’s house as she had difficulty walking and could not climb the stairs in her employer’s house.<\/p>\n
Because she remained in pain and was unable to work, her employer had to hire a part-time helper to take over her work.<\/p>\n
The victim partially resumed work only about a month after being discharged from hospital.<\/p>\n
Her hand and orthopaedic injuries are unlikely to cause permanent disability.<\/p>\n
Deputy Public Prosecutor Etsuko Lim sought a fine of S$4,000 to S$5,000 for Goh, along with the mandatory minimum disqualification period of five years.<\/p>\n
She noted that Goh had made the right turn instead of waiting in the right-turn pocket, even though the green man signal for pedestrians was lit and the victims had right of way.<\/p>\n
“We also note that he was driving at a speed that rendered him unable to brake in time, though there is no evidence that he was speeding,” said Ms Lim.<\/p>\n
As this was the only offence-specific culpability factor present, the indicative sentencing range was a fine and or a jail term of up to six months, said the prosecutor.<\/p>\n
After factoring in a slight uplift for the injury to the boy, Ms Lim sought a fine of S$4,000 to S$5,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SINGAPORE: A former chief of the air force was fined S$5,000 (US$3,860) and banned from driving for five years on Wednesday (Jul 1) for driving…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--ouLQY1lE--\/c_crop,h_900,w_1600,x_0,y_89\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/05\/14\/1000197103.jpg?itok=JYRa80dQ","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[364,555,27,1148,1285,3756,2414,25149,18372],"class_list":["post-65292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-air","tag-chief","tag-driving","tag-fined","tag-force","tag-maid","tag-pushing","tag-stroller","tag-toddler","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/65293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}