Police car also have good sound proofing?
Driver thought cyclist she hit was tree branch
By Chong Shin Yen
HER car rammed into a cyclist from the rear so hard that he flew
and hit the front windscreen, cracking part of it, before rolling
onto the road.
But Cleopatra Wong Yuin Ping, 30, thought the body that smashed
into the windscreen was a rotten tree branch that had fallen.
She did not bother to stop and continued driving her car along
Holland Road. Wong was also unaware that her victim's bicycle was
stuck in the undercarriage of the Lexus ES300 belonging to her
father, despite the noise of the bicycle scraping against the
road.
The bicycle was dragged for about 2km before it was
dislodged.
When Wong, who was a teacher then, reached home, she went to
bed.
She realised something was wrong only when she woke up in the
morning and found out that the police had towed away the
five-year-old Lexus.
Taken to court over the accident, Wong claimed that the
soundproofing of the Lexus was so good that she thought the
"sounds" she heard were caused by the tree branch.
Last month, she was fined a total of $2,400 - $800 on each of three
charges - and disqualified from driving for a year.
She had pleaded guilty to inconsiderate driving, failing to stop
after an accident and failing to render assistance after an
accident.
The court heard that Wong was driving home along Holland Road at
about 5.15am on Oct 19, 2008, when she hit the rear of a bicycle
ridden by Mr Muhammad Asri Aris.
