SINGAPORE: During the COVID-19 “circuit breaker” in Singapore, when non-essential activities were banned, two men went to a friend’s house for dinner and drinks.
Intoxicated, they began tussling with each other in a car park before one of them lay down on a hump on the road.
The other then drove a lorry directly over the man on the floor, dragging him around the car park and leaving him with injuries that led to permanent scarring.
The lorry driver, K Pradeep Ram, was sentenced on Wednesday (Aug 16) to a jail term of 21 months and two weeks, and a S$5,000 (US$3,685) fine. He was also banned from driving for 10 years.
The 41-year-old pleaded guilty to four charges of drink driving, dangerous driving, breaking COVID-19 regulations and cursing at the police. Another two charges were taken into consideration.
Pradeep and Pravin Kumar Subramaniam, 24, went to Senen Pillai Srethara Pillai’s home for dinner and drinks on the night of May 23, 2020.
This was when the COVID-19 circuit breaker was still in place and it was prohibited to leave the house for non-essential matters.
The trio had dinner and two bottles of liquor. Pradeep and Pravin left Senen’s house at about 4.45am the next day.
They collected Pradeep’s logistics company lorry from a car park near Block 417, Choa Chu Kang Avenue 4, and Pradeep offered to send Pravin home.
However, the pair began tussling with each other in the car park in an intoxicated state, hitting each other with road traffic cones and wrestling.
At about 5.30am, Pravin lay down flat on a road hump in the car park. Pradeep started the engine of the lorry and began driving dangerously, colliding with a construction barrier and swaying from side to side.
He drove directly over Pravin, who was lying on the hump. Pravin’s clothes got caught in the undercarriage of the lorry and he was dragged along the road.
Pradeep made a round of the car park, with Pravin dragged along underneath the lorry, before stopping at the exit gantry.
Two members of the public called the police around the time of the incident, saying that someone was drunk and shirtless in the car park and that another person was lying on the floor.
When police officers arrived, they called for an ambulance for Pravin as he was seriously injured.
Pradeep stood up suddenly and charged towards one of the officers, and he was handcuffed to a railing as a result.
However, he began cursing one of the officers from his position, saying: “You don’t teach me what to do, you crab”, among other more vulgar comments.
Pravin was taken to hospital with several injuries, including a groin wound, a lacerated ear, and large abrasions all over his body.
The pain from his wounds prompted him to ask for stronger painkillers after he was discharged from hospital.
He returned to hospital with pain and infected wounds in June 2020, and received skin grafts. The doctor said Pravin will have permanent injuries in the form of significant scarring over the “skin grated areas and the skin graft donor sites”.
Depending on the development of his scars, his daily activities might be impacted, as well as his ability to stand for long periods or carry heavy loads, said the doctor.
After Pradeep was arrested, he failed a breath test, with the amount of alcohol in his breath more than double the prescribed limit.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Timotheus Koh asked for a jail term of between 21 months and a week, and 24 months and two weeks. He also asked for a fine of between S$5,000 and S$6,000, as well as a driving ban of at least 10 years.
He said Pradeep had driven the lorry directly over Pravin, and that it was “fortuitous that he was not more seriously injured”.
He had “no good reason for driving in such a state” and behaved “in a belligerent manner” towards the police, said Mr Koh.
The incident also left Pravin with open wounds and he was in pain for a prolonged period, with 69 days’ medical leave, said the prosecutor.
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