SINGAPORE - Angry after one car knocked into the other, two 61-year-old men started a fight in the middle of Ghim Moh Road, disrupting traffic as vehicles had to stop to avoid hitting them.
The scuffle took all of 40 seconds, but resulted in a fine for each man.
On Tuesday (Feb 13), Khoo Boo Law, who got into the scuffle with taxi driver Lim San Nee, pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace by fighting in a public place and was fined $3,000. Lim had earlier been fined the same amount after admitting to a similar charge.
Before handing out the sentence on Tuesday, District Judge Kessler Soh told Khoo: "You should have known better...you should have avoided the situation."
On June 9, 2016, Lim was driving his taxi along the left lane of Ghim Moh Road towards Mount Sinai Road at around 1.30pm when he approached a carpark near Block 13.
Khoo was then driving his Toyota Altis out of the carpark, noted Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Ashraf Hassan. Instead of stopping his car at a stop line, he accelerated and made a left turn into Lim's path.
The taxi driver sounded his horn and overtook him.
As the two men were driving along the road, the front right part of Khoo's car collided into the left rear of Lim's taxi, the court heard.
The two men pulled up at a nearby taxi stand in front of Block 19 Ghim Moh Road and got out of their vehicles. They exchanged angry words before trading blows in the middle of the road.
DPP Ashraf said: "Traffic was momentarily disrupted as cars stopped both to avoid the accused and co-accused as well as to see the commotion that the two were causing."
The brief scuffle ended after a passer-by stepped in.
A doctor examined Lee at the Central Police Division about three hours later and he was found to have injuries including facial bruises and a swollen left upper lip.
Khoo went to the Singapore General Hospital that evening where a doctor found that he had a bruised right knee.
Offenders convicted of disturbing the peace by fighting in a public place can be jailed for up to a year and fined up to $5,000.
