An accident took place in Yishun Street 51 on Tuesday night, May 8 and police arrested a man for alleged drink-driving after crashing his car into a road divider.
A badly damaged bonnet of the car and the divider, including a piece of car plate could be seen in the images, which were taken after the incident happened. Stomp reported that police arrested the driver of the car at around 11.25 pm.
A man, Neal, who shared the pictures has said that the accused rammed into the central divider. He also mentioned that even though at the time of the accident he was not at the exact location, he was at his void deck and heard the sound of the crash.
Neal said while talking to the driver he came to know that he was coming back from the hospital and was falling down, as the mother of the accused was extremely ill and she was not able to move. The driver did not say that he was drunk but he described that how and why he crashed his car. In addition, Neal clarified that he did not detect any beer smell during the conversation.
Later, a police spokesperson said that they were alerted about the accident at around 11.22 pm that involved a white car in the Yishun Street 51 towards Yishun Avenue 4. He also mentioned that they arrested the 46-year-old man for suspected drink-driving.
However, the further police investigation is going on.
In the country, drink-driving is governed by the Road Traffic Act, of which section 67 sets out the offence.
As per the Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, the starting point for the punishment of such offenders should be the level of alcohol in an offender's body and then any "aggravating or mitigating" factors should be considered. He handed down the new guidelines in the High Court on 1 October 2013, i.e. punishment for driving with 64ug of alcohol in his blood – about 1.82 times the legal limit – to a 21-month ban and $2,500 fine.
He spelt out four bands of punishment for first-time offenders. Each contains a range of sentences, based on the level of alcohol in excess of the legal limit of 35 micrograms (ug) per 100 millilitres of breath:
- Between 35 – 54 ug: $1,000 to $2,000 in fines, and a driving ban of 12 to 18 months
- Between 55 – 69 ug: $2,000 to $3,000 in fines, and a driving ban for 18 to 24 months
- Between 70 – 89 ug: $3,000 to $4,000 in fines, and a driving ban for 24 to 36 months
- At least 90 ug: $4,000 to $5,000 in fines, and a driving ban for 36 to 48 months or longer
As an alternative to fines, first-time offenders may be sentenced to imprisonment for a maximum of 6 months. The mandatory driving ban would take effect from the date of his release from prison.
In terms of the repeat offenders under s. 67, a fine of between $3,000 and $10,000, or an imprisonment term of up to 12 months is applicable.
