S'porean driver gets jail, fine after drink-driving crash into JB restaurant
Lok Jian Wen for The Straits Times
A Singaporean man has been sentenced to two days in jail by a Johor court, after he crashed his car into a local restaurant last week while drunk.
Sim Kok Siong Daniel, 46, pleaded guilty to drink-driving after an interpreter read him the charge in Chinese at the Johor Bahru Magistrate Court on March 14, local media reported.
Sim was also fined RM12,000 (S$3,600) and banned from driving in Malaysia for two years.
On March 5 at around 10.50pm, the private hire driver lost control of his black car and crashed into a Thai mookata restaurant along Jalan Dato Abdullah Tahir, less than 5km away from the Johor Bahru checkpoint, according to the police.
His vehicle slammed into a wall and wrecked the chairs and tables in its way.
As he attempted to reverse his car to leave the restaurant, he knocked into a stationary car.
No injuries were reported during the incident.
A video of the crash that began circulating online on March 6 shows people standing around the car screaming as Sim attempts to drive off after ploughing into the restaurant. He is later seen persuaded by a man to step out of his vehicle.
An eyewitness who wished to be known only as Mr Tan told The Straits Times that he was at the restaurant at the time of the incident. He said that Sim had finished his meal and was attempting to leave the eatery when he crashed his car.
After the incident, Sim was detained and made to take an alcohol test. When told to take a second test, he was uncooperative with the authorities, said the police on March 8.
The court heard that his blood alcohol level was 165mg per 100ml, more than three times over the legal limit of 50mg per 100ml.
Pleading for leniency, Sim told the court that he earned around S$5,000 a month and could not afford to go to jail because he had to support his family of five, with three school-going children, China Press reported.
On top of his two-day jail sentence, the court ordered him to pay a fine of RM12,000, failing which his jail term would be extended to seven months.
The maximum sentence Sim could have received for his offence of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is up to two years in jail and a fine of up to RM30,000.
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