Drink driver in hit-and-run with cyclists along Nicoll Highway gets jail

SINGAPORE: A drink driver who collided with three cyclists along Nicoll Highway, sending one flying above the car before hitting the ground face-first, was sentenced to jail and banned from driving on Friday (Aug 16).
The driver was so inebriated that he had no recollection of the collision, which took place in the wee hours and left one of the cyclists with multiple fractures and bleeding in the skull.
Mohamed Akhtar Yusoff Marican, a 41-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced to eight months and four weeks’ jail, fined S$5,000 (US$3,790) and banned from driving for seven years.
He pleaded guilty to three charges of drink driving, driving without due care and attention and failing to help after an accident. Another two charges were taken into consideration.
The court heard that Akhtar was driving a rented black Audi car home after drinking alcohol at a bar in Golden Mile Shopping Centre on the night of Jun 3, 2022.
Feeling “high”, he drove in the middle lane of Nicoll Highway at around 1.50am on Jun 4, 2022.
At the same time, a group of five cyclists were cycling along the leftmost lane of Nicoll Highway towards Guillemard Road.
They were part of a larger group that planned to cycle towards East Coast Park, and they were all wearing proper safety gear and had the rear lights of their bicycles turned on.
At around 2.05am, Akhtar suddenly changed lanes, colliding first with a cyclist aged 48.
The cyclist was launched into the air. He flew above the car and hit the ground face-first.
Akhtar then collided with another two bicycles ridden by a man and woman, both aged 47. The man lurched forward from the impact, while the woman was knocked off into a barricade.
Not realising he had collided with anyone, Akhtar continued to drive and sped off.
A fourth cyclist who had lagged behind the three cyclists shouted for help. Another group of cyclists and people from two cars that stopped by helped to call the police and control traffic.
Akhtar realised the windscreen of his car was damaged only several minutes later and parked his car along the side of Sims Avenue, where he called a friend.
A traffic police officer tracked Akhtar down and noticed that he smelled strongly of alcohol. Akhtar admitted to this and was arrested after failing a breathalyser test.
Another breath evidential analyser test conducted on Akhtar at the traffic police headquarters found 89 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of Akhtar’s breath, above the limit of 35 microgrammes.
The three injured cyclists were taken to hospital. The worst-hit one, who was launched into the air, suffered fractures to his ankle, face and rib.
Because of bleeding in the brain, he had to undergo an emergency insertion of an intracranial pressure monitor, and later underwent surgery to repair his fractured ankle and shoulder blade.
He was hospitalised from Jun 4 to Jun 21 in 2022 and given 52 days’ of hospitalisation leave.
The other male cyclist was discharged the same day with right ankle pain and abrasions, while the female cyclist was discharged the same day with a knee bruise.
She later had a follow-up appointment for a persistent headache radiating to both shoulders and positional vertigo stemming from a history of “trauma to the head”.
The bicycles cost S$3,638, S$603 and S$365 to repair, while the Audi had its front windscreen shattered, the front grille broken, the front bumper misaligned, dented and scratched and the left wing mirror broken off.
After the collision, the cyclists called for witnesses in a  Facebook post on SG Road Vigilante, saying a “brother of ours has been badly injured” and that the driver’s “reckless action has almost ruin(ed) 3 families instantly”.
The prosecutor sought seven to eight years’ driving ban for Akhtar, along with a fine of S$5,000 to S$6,000 and jail ranging from nine months and a week to 15 months and two weeks.
He noted the injuries on the victims, especially the first one, and property damage to the bicycles.
“The accused was so inebriated throughout his drive on Nicoll Highway that he had no memory of the collision. This was especially dangerous considering that there were several cyclists who were cycling along the Nicoll Highway during this period,” said the prosecutor.
The amount of alcohol in Akhtar’s breath was more than double the legal limit, and there was “no good reason” for him to drive home after drinking hard liquor, he said.
Akhtar has a previous conviction from 2005 for speeding.