BUKIT MERTAJAM: The trial of a driver who crashed into an SUV, causing it to flip and fall off the Penang Bridge, began today with the police submitting 85 pictures of the accident scene and the two-day search and rescue operation.
The magistrates’ court also heard a defence lawyer querying a police witness over the consistency of the tyre-thread marks left on the bridge after the accident.
Vaitheswaran M Kumaradevan, 21, was charged under Section 41 (1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 with causing the death of Moey Yun Peng, 20, by driving recklessly at KM4 (eastbound) of the Penang Bridge at 3am on Jan 20.
He had earlier pleaded not guilty.
At court today, Deputy Public Prosecutor Nur Afiqah Zakaria spent an hour asking the first witness, Corporal Abdul Rashid Mohamud, a photographer at the Central Seberang Perai traffic enforcement division, questions related to the accident.
Afiqah went through all 85 pictures taken by Rashid at the scene of the accident and also after the Mazda CX-5 SUV was hoisted out from the sea.
Defence lawyer S Parameswaran then asked Rashid if the pictures presented showed consistent tyre-thread marks, as there were three tyre prints at the scene of the crash.
Rashid replied in the affirmative.
Afiqah then requested for the trial to be continued on another date to allow some of the 20 prosecution witnesses to attend.
Sessions Judge Ahzah Fariz Ahmad Khairuddin set the next trial dates for Nov 20-21 and Dec 3. He was presiding over the case today as the magistrate who had earlier heard the case has been transferred out of Penang.
Earlier, Vaitheswaran was seated in the public gallery with his mother. A court bailiff later ordered his mother to leave the court on orders from the deputy prosecutor. It is not known if the mother would be a witness.
Vaitheswaran later walked calmly into the dock and sat with three other men in chain-linked handcuffs. He is out on a RM7,000 bail with one surety and has had his driving licence temporarily suspended pending the court decision.
A dashcam video of the incident which went viral on Facebook showed the black Toyota Vios driven by Vaitheswaran, zig-zagging the three lanes of the bridge before crashing into the Mazda CX-5 SUV.
The Mazda flipped twice across three lanes, then slipped past the concrete guardrails to crash into the sea.
Authorities took two days to hoist the car as the search and rescue team had trouble locating the car due to unfavourable weather.
The SAR team lifted the white Mazda out of the sea after battling strong winds and strong currents at 6.06 pm on Jan 22. It was located some 15m underwater at Pier 34 of the bridge, eastbound. - FMT
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