Article from Straits Times 4 April 2007
Driver crashes test car, sales exec dies
# MARCH 21, 2007: Now he's shopping for these hot wheels
Netizens outraged that he's shopping for another fast car while
still under probe over fatal test-drive
By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent
ONLINE forums used by the community of car enthusiasts have been
aflame lately.
The target of their ire: the young man who got into an accident
while test-driving a Mazda MX-5 in October 2005, which caused the
death of the Mazda sales executive seated beside him.
These netizens are worked up because the said young man is - just
18 months later - shopping for a new high-performance car in an
apparently nonchalant fashion.
Mr Regan Lee, 26, declared in a posting on mycarforum.com on March
21 that he was undecided between a Volkswagen Golf GTI and a Subaru
WRX STI-S.
'Really in a dilemma at the moment,' he wrote. 'Would really like
to own the GTI, but an extra $10k in car price would mean i gotta
eat less every month ...lol...What you guys think?' ('lol' stands
for 'laughing out loud' in online forum parlance.)
Discussions had begun on a cordial note, with forum participants
offering their personal assessments of the GTI and the WRX.
Soon enough, someone recalled that Mr Lee was the one at the wheel
of the Mazda MX-5 in the crash that left 22-year-old sales
executive Angelia He Xueli dead.
That was when civility went out the window.
'Put him behind bars,' went the posting by Hamster Fest.
Legendkiller declared: 'He can run but he cannot hide. I will do my
best to ensure that he does not get to drive another car
again.'
The online attack spilled into other online forums such as
Sammyboy.com and Hardwarezone.
In the latter, the discussion thread in the current affairs section
pulled in a whopping 63,000 views - more than 50 times the average
number that other topics in the section attract.
On the day of the accident, Mr Lee took a $110,000 Mazda MX-5
convertible for a test-drive.
Barely five minutes into the drive, while along Upper Paya Lebar
Road, Mr Lee lost control of the MX-5, a car known for its
above-par road-holding.
The car flew over the divider, smashed head-on into a black BMW,
flipped over it and came crashing down onto a van on another
lane.
He was unhurt, but Ms He died an hour later in hospital.
Mr Lee was arrested but was released on bail.
He has not been charged to this day, and police said yesterday that
investigations were still being carried out.
Since the accident, Upper Paya Lebar Road has been repaved and
realigned. Mazda Motor (Singapore) has received an insurance payout
for the badly crushed MX-5, which is believed to have been
scrapped.
Mr Lee could not be contacted for comment.
Hardwarezone member James Ng, 25, when asked why he thought forum
participants have come down so hard on Mr Lee, said it probably had
to do with the perception that justice had not been served, and
that 'he still has his driving licence and he still poses a danger
to others'.
Mr Ng, an undergraduate at SIM University, said forum posters were
assuming Mr Lee was responsible for the accident.
He added that people also had not forgotten that it cost the life
of a young woman.
[email protected]
NETIZENS SAY
'He can run but he cannot hide. I will do my best to ensure that he
does not get to drive another car again.'
LEGENDKILLER
'He still has his driving licence and he still poses a danger to
others.'
Do you think its really him?
