AN 89-YEAR-OLD cyclist who was brain-damaged after colliding with a lorry was refused any compensation as he could not show the driver had been negligent.

District Judge Victor Yeo, who expressed sympathy for Mr Chua Peck Seng's plight, dismissed his family's suit for compensation without even calling on the driver to defend himself.

There was nothing to defend, said the judge, as the plaintiffs could not produce an eyewitness to shed some light on what had happened, or that the driver was to blame for the crash.

The accident occurred five years ago when Mr Chua was cycling along Bedok South Road Avenue 1 towards Upper Changi Road at about 10am.

It is understood he was cycling across from the left side of the road to the right and that a car in front of the lorry had swerved left to avoid him while the lorry veered to the right and knocked into him.

Mr Chua became mentally disabled as a result of severe head injuries and is now in a nursing home, where he remains bed-ridden.

His son, Mr Chua Kee Lam, a 55-year-old taxi driver, claimed on his father's behalf that the driver was travelling too fast, had failed to keep a proper lookout or paid sufficient heed to the cyclist.

At the hearing, another son showed up to give evidence, but since he had not been at the scene, the judge ruled he was not in a position to say anything about what had happened.

Judge Yeo said the only evidence which might throw some light on the accident was contained in two police reports filed by Mr Chua Kee Lam and the driver, named Moksha, 40.

But neither Mr Chua nor the driver had been called to testify during the half-day hearing last August, which made the reports inadmissible as evidence, said the judge.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.