Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

27-year-old Malaysian Sam Ke Ting was sentenced to six years in prison by the Johor Bahru High Court for causing the deaths of eight teenagers in a 2017 road collision.

At around 3:20am on Feb. 18, 2017, Sam was driving a car along Jalan Lingkaran Dalam when she plowed into a group of more than 30 teenagers riding "basikal lajak", modified bicycles where the handlebars are level with the seat.

Eight teenagers, aged 13 to 16, died and eight more were injured.

Sam was charged with reckless or dangerous driving for the crash but she pleaded not guilty and claimed trial, according to the New Straits Times.

The 27-year-old was initially acquitted and discharged by the Magistrate Court before the prosecution succeeded in their second appeal against the decision, the Malay Mail reported.

Acquittal overturned

In his judgement on April 13, 2022, High Court Judge Abu Bakar Katar said the Magistrate's Court made an error in failing to decide the respondent's defence without being under oath.

According to The Star, before the sentencing, he said:

"The respondent, in her defence, stated that she did not see the group of cyclists at the scene and there was another vehicle that hit the deceased cyclists and drove off. This version was never raised by the respondent during the prosecution's case.

The Magistrate’s Court made a mistake when it accepted the respondent’s defence of not knowing there would be basikal lajak activity during the time of the incident as an excuse to drive dangerously, which resulted in the victims’ death(s).

The respondent should have driven vigilantly instead of driving fast and causing the incident, and should have realised that the area's lighting was not bright at around 3:20am."

Abu Bakar also said that with limited visibility, the respondent should have been aware of road safety if she drove her car beyond the speed limit of 50kph before reaching the scene of the incident.

Online petitions against high court's decision

The judgement has prompted a range of reactions.

It has also led to quite a few petitions being set up on Change.org.

The two most prominent ones have seen almost a million signatures within less than a day.

According to Malay Mail, the first petition which called for Sam's release said that they did not "accept this judgement" and sought to "have her sentence overturned, so not to rob the bright future of a young, innocent Malaysian citizen".

In addition to her prison sentence, Sam was also ordered to serve another six months in prison if she did not pay an RM6,000 (S$1,934) fine.

She is also disqualified from driving for three years effective after the completion of her prison sentence.

Sam's lawyer Muhammad Faizal Mokhtar said they would be making an appeal to the Court of Appeal.

Related article

Follow and listen to our podcast here

Image adapted from Bernama YouTube