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Wong Heng Chiang, is alleged to have taken the wheel after having had too much to drink. -- ST PHOTOS: WONG KWAI CHOW, KELVIN CHNG
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SIX victims of an out-of-control car which crashed into a bus stop along Penang Road recounted the trauma of being hit by the charging car while waiting for their buses one evening.
One of them, Madam Tan Hong Eng, 67, was so badly affected by the May 1 accident last year that she is unable to sleep and has developed psychiatric problems.
'I am still in pain from my injuries. I still feel upset and depressed about the accident and I am unable to sleep properly at night.'
'I find it difficult to walk or to sit for long without pain,' she said in her conditioned statement tendered in court on Monday.
She and another witness, Madam Leng Lay Ling, 57, gave conditioned statements as their attendance was not required because they both have difficulty walking. The other four victims testified in court on Monday on Day One of Wong Heng Chiang's trial.
The prosecution upped three of the previous charges from simple hurt to grevious. In her statement, Madam Tan said she was seated at the bus stop when suddenly something hard hit her. She lost consciousness. Next, she found herself in in an ambulance and in immense pain.
She suffered many broken ribs on her left chest. She also broke her left leg, ankle, shoulder blade and had cuts on her spleen, scalp, left leg and thigh. She was warded till July 8 and then transferred to Ang Mo Kio Community Hospital till August.
After her discharge, she had to engage a maid to look after her.
Madam Leng was waiting with her old school friends Fong Yoke Heng, 58, and Ho Pin Sheng, 57, when she heard a screeching sound and Ho shouting at her to run. As she was standing up, the car hit her left foot, causing her to fall forward. She had deep cuts on her left foot and was warded for 20 days.
Beautician Toh Tong Qian, 20, was chatting with a friend, student Tan Xiang Yi, 17, and standing near the bus route board when she heard a piercing screeching sound. She was hit on the left thigh, and 'flung to the centre of the bus stop,' she said.
She said Wong, who alighted from the car, aplogised to them, saying he had made a wrong turn. He smelt of alcohol.
Both she and Xiang Yi suffered a right ankle fracture.
Xiang Yi missed her mid-year examination after two days in hospital and three weeks of medical leave. Hearing continues on Tuesday.
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