SAF colonel banned from driving and fined for causing fatal accident

Tan Yan Yee, 45, hit a pedestrian who was crossing Yio Chu Kang Road on Nov 13, 2011.  -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
Tan Yan Yee, 45, hit a pedestrian who was crossing Yio Chu Kang Road on Nov 13, 2011.  -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

A colonel in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) was banned from driving for three years and fined $6,000 on Thursday for causing the death of a pedestrian in 2011.

Tan Yan Yee, 45, was convicted of the offence along Yio Chu Kang Road after a four-day trial. District Judge Liew Thiam Leng found that Tan had failed to keep a proper lookout for Mr Lau Ing See, 86, at 8.14pm on Nov 13, 2011 while going straight on the extreme right and hitting the pedestrian who was crossing the road.

Tan, who was attached to the Singapore High Commission in Kuala Lumpur at the time, had claimed in his defence that he did keep a proper lookout. The court heard that he did not see Mr Lau and by the time the pedestrian, who was clad in dark clothing, had come into his path, there was very little he could do and he could not avoid the accident.

He claimed that visibility was poor and it was raining "moderately heavy". But prosecution witnesses said there was a drizzle and the overall visibility was fair.

A prosecution witness, Mr Danny Chua Swee Tien, had testified that he was driving a car with other passengers when he saw Mr Lau carrying a white plastic bag about 100m away. While the pedestrian was crossing the road, Tan's car passed him and subsequently hit the pedestrian.

Tan could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined for causing death through negligence.

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