Johor bicycle tragedy: High Court overturns acquittal, driver jailed 6 years

 

The Johor Bahru High Court has overturned the acquittal of a driver from a charge of reckless driving which caused the death of eight cycling teenagers in 2017.

Judge Abu Bakar Katar said the defence failed to raise reasonable doubt against the prosecution's case, which had proved the essence of the offence.

Sam was also fined RM6,000 and failure to pay the fine will result in an additional six-month imprisonment.

Utusan Malaysia reported the judge rejected the defence's application for a stay of execution and ordered them to secure leave to appeal from the Court of Appeal first.

Sam was also disqualified from driving for three years, effective immediately after she completes her prison sentence.

Eight teenagers killed

On Feb 18, 2017, eight cycling youths died, two others were critically injured and six more were slightly injured when the car Sam was driving rammed into them in the 3am incident.

Those who were killed in the incident were Mohamad Azrie Danish Zulkefli, 14; Muhamad Shahrul Izzwan Azzuraimie, 14; Muhammad Firdauz Danish Mohd Azhar, 16; Fauzan Halmijan, 13; Mohamad Azhar Amir, 16; Muhammad Harith Iskandar Abdullah, 14; Muhammad Shahrul Nizam Marudin, 14 and Haizad Kasrin, 16.

In 2019, magistrate Siti Hajar Ali acquitted Sam without calling her to the stand after finding that the prosecution had failed to prove a prima facie case.

In her judgment, Siti Hajar said the court took into consideration several factors, namely that it was a dark, hilly and winding road where the driver - who was not local to the area - could not foresee that there would be a group of cyclists on the road at 3am.

The magistrate added that the bicycle gang had put themselves in danger.

Siti Hajar said investigations found that Sam was not under the influence of alcohol, was not using her phone, and wore a seatbelt while driving, proving that the accused was driving responsibly and carefully.

Siti Hajar acquitted Sam again in 2021 when the High Court ordered the plaintiff to enter her defence. The magistrate said that the prosecution had failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

In his judgment today, Abu Bakar was reported as saying that the magistrate’s court had erred in not ruling on the 27-year-old’s defence that she did not see the teenagers and that a different vehicle had hit and run the group.

"The trial court also erred when accepting the defence that she did not know there would be cycling on the night of the incident as an excuse for driving recklessly that it caused deaths.

"The respondent should drive more carefully, taking into account the darkness and limited visibility," he said. - Mkini