Fadley Faisal
The Magistrate’s Court recently acquitted a woman from a charge of dangerous driving causing death on finding the defence to have cast doubt to the prosecution’s case against her.
Senior Magistrate Pengiran Hazirah binti Pengiran Haji Mohd Yusof delivered the judgement on January 29, freeing Nurul Naqibah binti Bahar from the allegations.
The defendant denied the charge of dangerous driving causing the death of a six-year-old boy.
Defence counsel Daud Ismail, represented the defendant throughout the trial.
Among the evidence laid out in court, a man was driving his hatchback with his nephew on the front passenger seat with his six-year-old son in his nephew’s lap and his other son in the back seat, along Jalan Junjongan.
At the same time the defendant was driving when she stopped at the red light at a T-junction traffic light on May 16, 2014.
The defendant waited until she saw the green arrow lights up when she made the turn, colliding with the incoming hatchback.
The man driving the hatchback affirmed that he drove through a solid green light when the defendant suddenly made the turn colliding into his car.
The collission at 4.55pm resulted in the death of his six-year-old son who was seated on the lap of his nephew in the front passenger seat.
As part of a post mortem report, it was established that the victim’s head hit the front dashboard and succumbed to his injuries from an impact while without being restrained with a seat belt.
The man denied running over a red light and claimed his son was restrained and that he was not trying to run the red light.
The man’s nephew gave evidence that the victim was not restrained and that he could not remember seeing the traffic lights.
A driver of a car called in to testify, gave evidence that he had stopped behind the defendant’s car at the red light.
He stated that the defendant made the turn on a solid green light and that it was moments after the accident that the green arrow light only came on.
He also said that the hatchback was moving fast.
The defendant’s sister who was a passenger in the car testified that they had stopped on red, still waiting when a solid green light came on, and only made the turn when the green arrow lights up.
Lawyer Daud suggested that the man driving the hatchback might have misjudged the situation trying to beat the red light and had been distracted with the unrestrained young victim on his nephew’s lap in the front passenger seat.
After the accident, the man sought for a relative who drove past the area to take his sons to the hospital as the victim was bleeding.
The court found that the seven years delay had affected the memories of the witnesses.
After giving thorough consideration and examination of the evidences, the court concluded that the defence had succesfully cast doubt on the prosecution’s case and acquitted the defendant.
