MANY questions about the circumstances of a Feb 10 car crash which killed three men will remain unanswered because the brain-damaged sole survivor cannot remember a thing.
But the one certainty which emerged from the coroner's inquiry yesterday was which man among the four was at the wheel of the Hyundai Avante.
From a pair of slippers stuck under the brake pedal since identified by his family, it was clear that Mr Jayakumar Asokan, 26, was driving the car along Dunearn Road that morning.
He died less than 12 hours after the crash that instantly killed Mr Mohammad Khalil Mohamed Shah and Mr Sunthereswaran Nadesan Mariyappan, both 23.
The court heard that the sole surivor, Mr Muhammad Alif Mohamed Shah, the 19-year-old younger brother of Mr Mohammad Khalil, suffered head injuries. He emerged from a coma and was discharged from hospital in April.
"He does not remember the accident or what he was doing before it," Senior Staff Sergeant Tan Chee Sing told the court.
He added that Mr Muhammad Alif now thought and behaved like a child.
The court heard that the driver, Mr Asokan, was also the designated chauffeur for a wedding the four were preparing for later that day. The car was entrusted to him by the bride's aunt. Little else is known about the accident.
For instance, it could not be determined where in the car the other three had been seated because, unbelted, they were all flung out on impact.
The windows had been wound down and the rear windscreen, smashed.
At about 2am that day, the four were travelling from the Adam Road Food Centre to Mustafa Centre in Little India to buy wedding decorations.
When they reached the junction of Dunearn Road and Chancery Lane, Mr Asokan overtook a stationary taxi and beat a red light, court papers said.
In his police statement, taxi driver Chia Choon Khiang, 53, the only witness to the accident, estimated that the Hyundai car had blown past him at between 160kmh and 170kmh.
Mr Chia, who was in the second lane from the left, was not ferrying passengers at the time and no other cars were on the road.
The court heard that after the Hyundai overtook him and ran the traffic lights, it swerved to the extreme left lane, skidded to the right, hit the kerb, ploughed into a tree and then into thick bushes lining the canal separating Bukit Timah and Dunearn roads.
A toxicology report showed that Mr Asokan's blood had 45mg per 100ml of ethanol ? below the legal limit of 80mg per 100ml.
State Coroner Victor Yeo asked for a clarification on the presence of ethanol in Mr Asokan's blood from the Health Sciences Authority and the police statement given by the bride's aunt.
He will deliver his findings on Nov 13.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Oct 23, 2008.
