Thu, Apr 23, 2009
The New Paper
Taxi driver hits dog but ignores pleas to help
FOR nine years they took care of their pet dog, doting over it like a child.
It happened on 11 Apr, when Miss Wong Fang Juin, 36, a civil servant, was about to take her Maltese called Blanc, to see the vet for a skin condition.
Miss Wong said: 'I forgot my handphone and I went to get it. I tied up Blanc but somehow he wriggled free and headed for the road.
'Suddenly I heard loud sounds and people shouting. By the time I ran to the road, I saw our dog dead and the taxi escaping.'
Blanc had been cared for by Miss Wong and Ms Ashton Ooi, 43, a pet shop owner, since it was a puppy.
They were not able to find owners for it because it had a bad skin condition.
When Blanc went past a coffee shop at Jalan Legundi that morning, coffee shop owner Tan Yew Huat, 52, saw it and commented to his colleague about how cute it was.
Said Mr Tan: 'Then an NTUC Comfort cab turned from the carpark and ran over it. When the first wheel hit the dog, I gestured to the driver to stop.
'The dog was struggling to get up but the cabby drove on. When the second wheel hit the dog, the dog became motionless.
'The driver shrugged but did not stop.'
Mr Tan ran after the taxi and managed to reach it when it stopped at a road junction roughly 40 metres away.
'I opened the car door and told him that he ran over a dog and should be responsible and do something about it.
'He agreed and told me he would turn around, but he sped off,' said Mr Tan.
Miss Wong said: 'If he had stopped when the wheel first hit him, I think our dog would still be alive.'
Mr Tan said he had shouted so loudly that even the people who were renovating a shop a few doors away from his coffee shop heard him.
'How could he not have heard or seen anything? I really pity the dog,' he said.
The vet report said the dog is likely to have died from head trauma from a fractured skull.
Miss Wong, who said she has had difficulty sleeping or eating since the incident, said: 'Basically, his skull just wasn't there any more, his head was crushed by the back wheel.
Clear view
'If it had been the front wheel, he would not have moved after being hit, but the eyewitness saw him moving, so it must have been the second wheel that killed him.'
Ms Ooi said: 'An accident like this should not have happened. It occurred when the driver was turning out of the carpark with a clear view of the opposite road.'
With information from eyewitnesses who took down the cabby's plate number, Ms Ooi lodged a police report.
Under the Road Traffic Act, the driver of a vehicle that is involved in a road accident where damage or injury is caused to any person, vehicle, structure or animal, has to report the accident at a police station or to a police officer within 24 hours.
Any person who fails to comply will be guilty of an offence.
She wants to take legal action against the driver for being reckless.
| READ MORE - Hitting animal as serious as hitting a human |
She wrote to ComfortDelGro, saying: 'He obviously did not check the road before turning out and even after knowing he had run over my dog, he did not have the basic courtesy and humanity to get down and render assistance.
'In spite of agreeing to deal with the situation, he fled. As I understand under Section 84 of the Road Traffic Act, it is an offence to hit and run.'
Replying, Ms Tammy Tan, group corporate communications officer for ComfortDelGro Corporation, told Ms Ooi and The New Paper: 'We are very sorry that Ms Ooi lost her dog as a result of an accident with our taxi.
'We have conducted a detailed investigation into the matter, including speaking to independent witnesses. Based on our findings, we have found that Ms Ooi's dog had broken free of its leash without her knowledge and run down Jalan Legundi unattended.
'Our taxi was turning into that road at the time and accidentally hit Ms Ooi's dog. Our driver was initially unaware that an accident had taken place.'
After he was told by a member of the public, he should have stopped and rendered assistance, she said.
For not doing so, he has been given a 'very stern warning and will be monitored closely'.
Ms Tan added: 'We are currently in contact with Ms Ooi and we will assist the Traffic Police in their investigations. The driver has since expressed his remorse for hitting the dog.'
Ms Ooi said: 'How remorseful can he be? He has not contacted us directly so far after so many days.'
This article was first published in The New Paper.
