A 26-year-old Mercedes driver who had drunk at least half a bottle of cognac drove against traffic after spotting a police road block ahead.
The driver, Lam Chen Wee, reversed his Mercedes CLA 200 and drove against oncoming traffic for nearly 300m in the early hours of Jan 26, 2017, reports The Straits Times.
Lam, now 27, was sentenced to four weeks jail, banned from driving for three years, and fined $2,700.
He had pleaded guilty to one count each of dangerous driving, drink driving, failing to stop when ordered by a police officer, and leaving a vehicle in a manner likely to endanger others.
The court heard that Lam had slowed down and reversed his car after seeing the roadblock.
He was ferrying three passengers at the time of the incident.
One of Lam’s friend who was in the backseat asked him to move forward, but Lam continued reversing about 140m along the slip road from the Central Expressway (CTE) into Upper Serangoon Road.
During the process, a rear tyre mounted the kerb along the road divider, but Lam continued reversing.
Several vehicles had to swerve to avoid hitting Lam’s Mercedes.
After stopping at the chevron markings separating CTE and PIE, Lam switched off his headlights as he did not want to draw attention to his vehicle.
After that, Lam reversed again into the slip road of CTE into Upper Serangoon Road, stopping after a left bend on a dimly lit slip road, which posed a danger to other motorists.
Two minutes later, Lam started driving towards the chevron.
His headlights were still off when he made an illegal U-turn and drove against traffic for about 100m along Jalan Toa Payoh.
He stopped at a bus bay for a while and waited for traffic to clear and continued driving against the traffic flow further into PIE towards Changi Airport.
Along the way, four vehicles including two taxis which flashed their high beams at him, had to slow down to allow Lam to pass through.
He reversed again into the bus bay and waited for the four vehicles to pass by.
Lam accelerated against the flow of traffic for 31m and made an abrupt illegal U-turn, cutting across the chevron to join the normal flow of traffic of PIE towards Changi Airport.
A Traffic Police (TP) officer subsequently stopped Lam along the PIE 13-km mark, where the latter was subjected to a breathalyser test.
Lam failed the test and was taken back to the Jurong Police Division for a further test.
He had 38 microgrammes (mcg) of alcohol per 100 ml of breath surpassing the prescribed limit of 35mcg.
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Drink driving traffic offences
