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By Joyce Lim
Death came in a moment of grace.
Cabby Foo Ching Fwee, 72, had stepped out of his taxi to get a plastic bag from the boot of his taxi for a sick passenger when he was knocked down and killed by a car.
Mr Foo had picked up the passenger heading to Bukit Panjang from Lucky Plaza at around 1am on Aug 12 last year.
At 1.20am on the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) towards Jurong, his passenger asked for a plastic bag, saying he felt like vomiting.
Mr Foo stopped his taxi on the shoulder of the PIE near the Bukit Timah Expressway exit to get a plastic bag.
As he was returning to the driver's seat, a car travelling on the extreme left lane of the expressway hit him.
Mr Foo was flung 10m away and landed near a metal guard rail on the edge of the expressway.
Clue is on the plate
The car that hit him did not stop, but it's dislodged number plate was found at the scene.
Police traced the plate back to Yeo Yee Kuan, the owner of the car.
Yesterday, Yeo, 30, was sentenced to six weeks' jail and fined $7,000 for the hit-and-run accident.
Yeo pleaded guilty to a charge of negligently causing the death of Mr Foo and failing to stop his car after the accident to render assistance.
Yeo, who moved to Singapore from Malaysia in 2004, has been working here as an IT consultant and became a permanent resident in 2005.
He is married with a one-year-old child.
The District Court heard that on Aug 11, Yeo finished work at around 7pm and went for a drink at St James Power Station. He drank a bottle of beer and left the club around midnight.
Feeling tired, he rested in his car before driving home, his mitigation plea said.
Yeo slowed down his car to a speed of about 60kmh as he entered a bend towards the PIE exit.
At that point, he nodded off. Then he heard a bang.
He looked into his rear mirror and saw a taxi with its hazard light blinking parked by the road shoulder but protruding slightly into the lane he was in.
In a state of shock, he drove on, the mitigation plea stated.
He later decided to stop some distance away to check the damage to his car. Apart from the missing number plate, its left headlight was slightly damaged.
Afraid that his wife would question him about the damage, Yeo drove to HarbourFront, parked his car at the Seah Im Road carpark and left.
Around 4am that day, police arrested him at his home on Petir Road.
In the mitigation plea, Yeo's lawyer, Mr Shashi Nathan of Inca Law LLC, said Yeo had woken up before 7am for work and was extremely tired during the drive home.
He also did not see Mr Foo on the road.
Even after the accident, Yeo did not know that he had hit and killed someone until he was told at the police station.
Mr Shashi said it was Yeo's momentary inattention or misjudgement that caused the accident. Yeo is deeply remorseful and paid his respects at MrFoo's wake.
He has also stopped driving and sold his car soon after the accident.
This article was first published in The New Paper.
 
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