Repeatedly flouting his driving ban, Alvin Phua Lai Soon’s latest violation of the law literally came to a screeching halt when he went on a drunken drive and slammed his father’s Volvo into a Nissan sedan.
The 32-year-old has since been slapped with a 14-week jail term and a 20-year driving ban for the third time after he flouted his driving prohibition once again, The New Paper reported.
Unrepresented by a lawyer, Phua pleaded guilty to one count each of causing grievous hurt, drunk driving, driving while disqualified and driving a car without its owner’s consent. Despite being jailed for five weeks and getting a 10-year driving ban in 2014, he broke the law once again when he took his father’s car out without permission on March 28 last year.
After a drinking session with three friends at a Clarke Quay pub, they took a taxi back to his home in Bedok around 4.40am. He then grabbed his father’s car keys and drove to Geylang with them for supper.
It was when he beat a red light at the junction of Frankel Road that he hit Poh Hock Choo’s Nissan sedan, which was coming from his right. The accident left a 49-year-old woman trapped under her car, suffering broken ribs and a cut on her liver.
Her husband in the passenger seat was left hanging out of a broken window, sustaining fractures to his spine, left shoulder and right knee, as well as bleeding in his brain.
Phua’s passengers fared no better. 51-year-old Vu Thi Phuong Lan sat in the rear passenger seat of the Volvo and suffered fractures to her spine and ribs, as well as a bruised left lung and a nearly shattered spleen.
Police who arrived at the scene tested Phua’s alcohol level and found it way above the legal limit.
