Kota Kinabalu: A 52-year-old lorry driver was sentenced to a two-year bond of good behaviour by the Traffic Court here Wednesday for careless and inconsiderate driving, last year.
Magistrate Marilyn Kelvin set RM2,000 or a month’s jail as a condition for the good behaviour bond with one surety against Petrus Anak Laman.
The court also ordered Petrus’ driving licence to be endorsed with the conviction.
Petrus pleaded guilty to having driven a Hino lorry without due care and attention on Aug 22, 2023, at 6pm, at Lido flyover, Jalan Lintas here.
The charge under Section 43(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 (Amended 1999) carries a fine of between RM5,000 and RM10,000 and liable to jail of up to 12 months, on conviction.
The prosecution, earlier, informed the court that Petrus was initially charged under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987 but his counsel wrote a representation letter to the Deputy Public Prosecutor’s (DPP) office for the charge to be reduced and was accepted.
The prosecution also informed the court that the sentence offered was a bond of good behaviour because the parties had agreed to enter a plea bargaining.
Earlier, the prosecution in tendering the facts of the case, said that on Aug 22, 2023, at 6pm, an accident occurred at the Lido flyover, Jalan Lintas, involving a Hino truck driven by Petrus and six other vehicles.
Police investigation revealed that the accident happened when Petrus was driving the lorry with a conductor from Putatan towards Kolombong in the middle lane.
As they approached the Lido flyover and with the road conditions being congested, a Proton Saga on the left lane moved into the middle lane in front of Petrus’s Hino truck.
The Proton Saga then lost control and veered back into the left lane, colliding with a Toyota Vios and a Proton Iriz.
Petrus’s Hino truck slid forward and crashed into the rear of a Bezza vehicle.
Petrus was found to have not maintained a safe distance from the vehicle in front, leading to the involvement of multiple vehicles in the accident and indicating that Petrus was driving without due care and attention, said the prosecution.
Counsel Lim Ming Zoong @ Lawrence representing Petrus, informed the court that the representation letter was served on July 1, this year.
He said Petrus, a Sarawakian, working as a lorry driver, married with three children, was the sole breadwinner of his family.
At the time of incident happened, Petrus was sober, focused and aware of the surroundings of the road when he was driving the vehicle, said Lim, adding that the vehicle was not his own but registered under the company Tunggak Hijau Sdn Bhd.
Should he be aware of the vehicle’s condition, he would not drive it, said Lim, adding that Petrus provided full cooperation to the police when he was arrested for the case and that he was a first-time offender.
Lim applied for a bond of good behaviour with no conviction recorded.
The prosecution applied for conviction to be recorded since the law provided as such.
DPP Batrisyia Mohd Khusri and traffic prosecuting officer Inspector Mohammad Khairul Nizam Mokhtar prosecuted.
