SINGAPORE - A 19-year-old was jailed for nine weeks on Tuesday (Feb 6) in what is believed to be the first case here involving a cyclist causing a a fatal accident.
Khairul Hairuman was riding a bicycle without working brakes when he ran a red light and hit an elderly pedestrian.
Khairul had pleaded guilty to committing a rash act which caused the death of Mr Tong Cheng Poh, 73, along Lorong Ah Soo on April 13 last year.
Mr Tong died of a head injury the following day.
The prosecution had sought four months' jail for Khairul, saying the proliferation of personal mobility devices in recent times is likely to lead to more such cases.
"A suitably deterrent signal has to be sent," said Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Lee Zu Zhao.
He had told the court that Khairul's bicycle had no brakes and was not designed for use on roads or in public places.
Khairul was cycling along the two-lane Lorong Ah Soo road in heavy traffic at 5.15pm when he noticed that the traffic light was red.
Despite his view being blocked by a bus in the left lane, he decided to ride between the lanes to cross the pedestrian crossing.
His bicycle ran into Mr Tong who had right of way on the pedestrian crossing.
When inspected, the bicycle was found to be able to brake at only very slow speeds.
Khairul had known the rear brakes were not fixed and about a week before the accident, he had removed the faulty front brakes and not replaced them.
Khairul was described as a Deliveroo delivery rider in court papers. But a spokesman for the food delivery firm said Khairul never worked with Deliveroo and was not carrying out a delivery when the incident occurred.
District Judge Eddy Tham said Khairul committed a clearly illegal and dangerous manoeuvre by running the red light.
He calibrated Khiarul's sentence after taking into account his clean record, and the fact that a bicycle's speed is much lower than that of a motorcycle.
"However , the tragic consequences of this case reveal that death can still be caused by the impact of a moving bicycle," he added.
The maximum penalty for causing death by a rash act is five years' jail and a fine.
