SINGAPORE - A man who was hitching a ride in a prime mover stabbed the driver's nephew in the back with a pair of animal's antlers and the vehicle crashed during the ruckus in February 2018.
In the midst of the crash, the antlers swung towards the face of the driver, Mr Sivakumar Perumal, 43. Part of the antlers impaled his left eye, piercing his brain and eventually killed him.
His former colleague, Saravanan Arimuram, 33, who was initially charged with his murder in 2018, was sentenced on Tuesday (March 24) to a year and eight months' jail after pleading guilty to one count of committing a rash act - a less serious offence.
The Singaporean had swung the antlers around in the moving prime mover - endangering the lives of Mr Sivakumar and, by extension, other road users.
Saravanan also admitted to assaulting Mr Sivakumar's nephew, Navin Partiban, 18.
A district court heard that the antlers are about 40cm long and 50cm high. Court documents did not state why they were inside the vehicle.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Daphne Lim said a group of people, including Mr Sivakumar, Navin and Saravanan were downing alcoholic drinks in the void deck of Block 53 Teban Gardens shortly before the tragedy on Feb 15, 2018.
At around 5pm, Mr Sivakumar decided to head to Yishun with his nephew and agreed to give Saravanan a lift.
During the journey, Saravanan spoke to his girlfriend on his phone and she told him to meet her in Toa Payoh instead.
He asked Mr Sivakumar if he could drive him there but the older man turned down this request as he had a dinner appointment.
Saravanan got into a quarrel with him and insisted on taking over the wheel, the court heard.
Mr Navin then hurled a vulgarity at Saravanan as the prime mover was travelling along Jurong Town Hall Road. The teenager also leaned towards his uncle and asked him to drop off Saravanan immediately.
Upset, Saravanan grabbed the antlers from the dashboard and stabbed Navin's back with them. Mr Sivakumar shouted at Saravanan and said he was "being crazy".
The DPP said: "Almost immediately, the prime mover mounted the left kerb before making a sharp and sudden right turn across two lanes, mounted the right kerb and climbed the adjacent embankment slope of Teban Flyover before toppling on its left side."
Navin managed to get out of the vehicle and an eyewitness alerted the authorities.
Singapore Civil Defence Force officers arrived at the scene soon after to extricate Saravanan and Mr Sivakumar from the cabin of the prime mover.
The older man was unconscious and all three men were taken to hospital, where Mr Sivakumar died about two hours later of "extensive cranio-cerebral injuries" from the wound to his left eye.
For assault, Saravanan could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined or caned.
And for committing a rash act, he could have been jailed for up to six months and fined up to $2,500.
