Jail for man who grabbed steering wheel of moving bus, wanted it to crash into tree

SINGAPORE: An angry passenger grabbed the steering wheel of a public bus that was travelling on an expressway, intending to crash the vehicle into a tree.  

Cheng Yuan Kang, 24, then assaulted his mother and the Tower Transit bus driver, and also smashed a window with the bus emergency hammer while the vehicle was still moving. 

On Wednesday (Feb 26), Cheng was sentenced to 14 weeks and 10 days’ jail. He pleaded guilty to one count each of criminal intimidation, voluntarily causing hurt and committing a rash act endangering the safety of others.  

Two charges, for being a public nuisance and for committing mischief, were taken into consideration for his sentencing. 

The court heard that Cheng and his mother boarded bus service 969 towards Tampines on Jan 6. 

At that point, an acquaintance who was supposed to meet Cheng at the entrance of a car show event later that week called his mother to inform her about a change to their meeting location.

Cheng became angry upon hearing this. 

At about 9.15am, Cheng went to the front of the bus as it was travelling along the Seletar Expressway towards the Tampines Expressway. He punched the bus driver, a 50-year-old Singaporean, thrice.

Cheng asked the bus driver to let him alight as he “wanted to escape”, according to Deputy Public Prosecutor Melissa Heng. 

The bus driver told him that he could not stop as he was on the expressway, but would stop at the next bus stop. 

Cheng then held onto the steering wheel with both hands, wanting to crash the bus into a tree. The bus driver managed to push Cheng away and the bus jerked during the brief tussle. 

After the struggle, Cheng went to the back of the bus, took the emergency hammer and smashed a window. He warned other passengers not to call the police otherwise he would “go after their family”, said Ms Heng.

Cheng then returned to his mother, punched her face and kicked her shin twice. 

Not yet done, Cheng walked to the front of the bus and told the bus driver “let me alight, or I will kill you”. 

At the next bus stop, the bus driver stopped the bus and all the passengers alighted. 

The victim informed his operations department about the incident and a staff member called the police. Cheng was arrested that same day. 

The bus driver sought medical help that morning and was found to have a bruise.

Appearing in court via videolink, Cheng apologised for his actions and promised not to repeat them. 

The court heard that Cheng is seeing a doctor at the Institute of Mental Health, but his specific condition was not revealed in court. 

District Judge Carol Ling noted that there was no contributory link between his condition and his offences. 

In passing her sentence, she said that Cheng’s risk of offending was high. She said the sentence should be for deterrence and for the protection of the public. 

She imposed the sentence that the prosecution had sought, finding it to be “fair and appropriate”.