A 70-year-old motorcyclist was tragically killed in Singapore when a woman driving a seven-seater SUV lost control of her car, injuring her three children and sister who were also in the vehicle.
According to Lianhe Zaobao, the 38-year-old woman claimed she lost control of the car due to severe menstrual cramps, hitting a railing before skidding and crashing into the motorcyclist, which led to his death.
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Her 3 children weren’t wearing seat belts
The crash happened around 2:55 am on December 3, 2022, along the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) heading towards Woodlands.
At the time of the accident, none of the three children in the car were wearing seat belts, and the defendant’s two-year-old twin sons weren’t secured in child safety seats. One was being held by their sister and the other by the defendant’s daughter.
After the crash, the woman and her family were taken to the hospital, where she was treated for a swollen forehead and a scratch on her right arm, while her sister had a head hematoma and a cut on her nose.
Meanwhile, the three children experienced minor symptoms such as back pain, dizziness, shoulder pain, and swollen eyes, with one of them also sustaining a hematoma and a cut on his left eyebrow.
“She should’ve avoided driving”
The defendant’s lawyer told the court on Tuesday (May 20) that she lost control of her car due to sudden menstrual pain, which led to the accident.
The prosecution argued that menstrual pain is a predictable, cyclical condition, and she should have been more careful and avoided driving if she wasn’t feeling well.
When sentencing, the judge pointed out that since there was no medical report to prove she actually had menstrual pain, it was impossible to assess how severe it was or how it affected her driving.
She faced five charges of violating the Road Traffic Act, including careless driving and not wearing seat belts for her children. She admitted one of the charges, and the remaining charges were left to the judge to take into consideration when sentencing.
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The woman was sentenced to four months in prison, and her driver’s license was revoked for eight years.
