HEADED for the Pan-Island Expressway after a Christmas Eve lunch two years ago, Ms Karen Ong Sze Mei saw a woman pillion rider being thrown off a motorcycle onto the roof of a car at a busy intersection.

Ms Ong, recalling the accident at the junction of Whitley and Dunearn roads, said: "The woman then slid down the windscreen and onto the ground."

The motorcyclist, a man, was flung to the other side of the car.

Ms Ong was testifying on the first day of the trial of Michelle Lim Hong Eng, who has been accused of causing the death of Indonesian maid Melania Melaniawati, 24, and grievously injuring her employer, Mr David Jermais Pattiselanno, 69.

Lim, 55, a Shin Min Daily News executive editor, is alleged to have run a red light, according to the charges against her.

Ms Ong, 32, a civil servant, said she had been in the back seat of a car driven by her husband, with her baby on her lap.

Having stopped at the Stevens Road junction, they were waiting for the lights to change to make a right turn into Dunearn Road.

Then she saw Lim's car, which she described as a dark-coloured sports utility vehicle (SUV), coming from the opposite direction.

It continued moving after hitting the motorcycle and passed Ms Ong's car before stopping.

"The driver had her left hand to the left side of her face and I had the impression that she was using a cellphone, but I cannot be sure," Ms Ong said.

But she agreed with Lim's lawyer Subhas Anandan that Lim could have held her hand to her face in shock.

Another witness in court yesterday, CityCab taxi driver Lim Kian Seng, 51, said he had stopped his taxi next to Mr Pattiselanno's motorcycle at the red light just before the junction in Dunearn Road.

The pair on the motorbike had caught his attention because the motorcyclist was a lot older than his pillion rider and the bike was quite "fancy", said Mr Lim.

As the lights changed in his favour, he followed the motorcycle to turn right into Stevens Road, but had to "jam his brakes" when the crash occurred and the pair were thrown off the motorcycle.

He said that he was surprised the SUV driver had not tried to stop or taken evasive action before the impact.

After his passenger had agreed to stop to render aid, Mr Lim swung his taxi diagonally across the road to prevent other cars from crashing into the injured pair.

He called the police and found both victims badly hurt.

Then, Lim came out of her SUV and started screaming "Oh, my God" repeatedly.

The trial continues today.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on May 8, 2008.