SINGAPORE: After staying up all night with his friends, Galistan Aidan Glyn drove his car from Seletar to Stevens Road to drop his friends off, before heading back to his parents’ home in Jurong West.
While en route to his parents’ home, the 28-year-old Singaporean lost control of his car and hit a pedestrian. The pedestrian, Ms Serene Ng, 41, was taken to the hospital in a critical condition and died of her injuries that same day.
On Monday (May 21), Glyn was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and disqualified for driving for five years. He was convicted of causing death by a negligent act earlier this month.
According to court documents, Glyn had been driving along Jurong West St 42 the morning of Aug 25, 2017, when he abruptly lost control of his car, mounted the kerb and hit Ms Ng, who had just crossed the road.
Investigations revealed that the night before the accident, Glyn had gone out with friends and stayed up all night, before going to a coffee shop near his friend’s house in Seletar for breakfast at about 6.45am.
After breakfast, he drove his friends back to their houses at Seletar and Stevens Road, before driving back to his parents’ home.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Senthilkumaran Sabapathy stressed that Glyn had driven for a “considerable distance and time” while sleep deprived, and had thereby endangered the lives of other road users, including his friends to whom he had given a lift.
He also described the incident as “not an ordinary case of negligence on the road”, noting that Ms Ng had already finished crossing the road, and had been on the kerb when the accident occurred. “This was an entirely preventable tragedy, and the needless loss of a life,” he said.
Glyn, who had asked to address the court, apologised for his actions.
But Ms Ng’s older brother, Ng Chin Khoon, felt that the sentence Glyn received was too light. Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, he said that Glyn should have been disqualified from driving for life.
Ms Serene Ng was killed in a traffic accident on Aug 25, 2017. (Photo courtesy of Ng Chin Khoon)
Describing his sister as “friendly and helpful”, he said that Ms Ng, who was a civil servant, had taken leave from work the day of the accident to do social work.
“I still cannot accept (this),” he said. “She was a careful person.”
