But his 54-year-old mother believes that her son should get more money.

'I'm not satisfied,' Madam Ramiah Naragatha Vally told The Straits Times on Thursday in between sobs on Thursday.

'My son's life is gone.'

Mr Ramesh Ayakanno, a former lorry driver who held a blackbelt in taekwondo, is now unable to move or talk and requires life-long medication for epileptic seizures.

He spends most of his day in bed and is moved to a reclining chair for a couple of hours a day, said Madam Vally. He cannot feed himself and has to wear adult diapers.

Mr Ramesh is entitled to get 95 per cent of the award, as well as interest and legal costs.

This is because in 2002, the driver of the van that crashed into Mr Ramesh had agreed to take 95 per cent of the blame for causing the accident on the Kranji Expressway on March 9, 2001.

The payout will be made by the van driver's insurers. Mr Ramesh had been hit after he stopped his lorry along the road shoulder to check a noise coming from the back of the vehicle.

Then 26 years old and due to get married, he was flung to the ground and suffered serious head injuries.

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