• Nur’Adilah Abu Bakar and Amidah Hussain were on their way to dinner when the accident happened
• Nur’Adilah lost control of her motorcycle, which crashed into a centre guard railing
• Investigations found the motorcycle was serviceable, no other vehicles were involved

SINGAPORE – At the end of their shift, a cargo porter and her supervisor wanted to cap their work day with a meal together. However, they never reached the restaurant they had intended to go.

On their way to dinner, the porter, Nur’Adilah Abu Bakar, lost control of her motorcycle, which left her supervisor Amidah Hussain fatally injured.

On Thursday (July 23), Nur’Adilah, 33, pleaded guilty to committing a negligent act that resulted in the death of her 52-year-old pillion rider, and was sentenced to a fine of S$5,000. She has also been disqualified from driving all classes of vehicles for five years.

THE CASE

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Nicholas Lai told the court that the accident happened on the night of May 20 last year along the three-lane East Coast Parkway towards Changi Airport.

Nur’Adilah was riding her brother-in-law’s motorcycle, with her supervisor as her pillion rider, when the motorbike started veering to the right from lane three to lane one before it collided with the centre guard railing.

The impact caused both individuals to be flung off the motorcycle, with Nur’Adilah landing on lane one of the expressway. Amidah landed on the grass verge near the centre guard.

No other vehicles were involved, DPP Lai said, describing the traffic flow that night as moderate. He added that the weather was clear that day, and the road surface was dry and visibility was clear.  

The two women were taken to the Singapore General Hospital.

Amidah, who sustained multiple abrasions, was conscious when she arrived but succumbed to her injuries the following morning.

Nur’Adilah herself was unconscious when she arrived at the hospital, having sustained multiple injuries which included a fracture of her right pelvis and right forearm.

An autopsy report for Amidah found that while there were no patterned injuries on her body, such as those left by tyre marks, the possibility of being run over could not be excluded.

The report said that there was significant injury to Amidah’s underlying soft tissue of the right thigh, which is consistent with being crushed by a vehicle.  

However, this could not be established as footage from the Land Transport Authority’s sky camera was not able to capture the incident because it was not panned to the site of the accident.

A witness, who had driven past the women that night, came forth with his car’s camera footage as well. He told investigators that after driving past the women, he noticed a “very bright spark” from his rear mirrors which came from Nur’Adilah’s fallen motorcycle.

The witness said that he was not certain how the motorcycle had toppled, and that he had not seen any other vehicles close to it. He added that he could not render assistance as he had already driven quite far ahead, but called 999 instead to inform the police.

An inspection of the motorcycle found that there was no evidence to suggest there was any form of mechanical failure that could have contributed to the accident. The tyres were similarly found to be in a serviceable condition.

'BAFFLING' INCIDENT

In seeking a lighter sentence for his client, defence lawyer Amarick Gill, who had been assigned to Nur’Adilah under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, said that no one will know what caused the tragedy.

“It is a terrible thing that has happened, and beyond belief what has transpired. The person most in the dark is Nur’Adilah,” Mr Gill said, adding that she was neither intoxicated nor sleepy while driving.

He said his client was aware that her offence could have resulted in a jail term, but she had told him that there was “nothing prison can do to her that she hasn’t done to herself”.

“She has to live with the knowledge that she has caused the death of a friend for the rest of her life… (The incident) baffles her every day.”

Nur’Adilah looked withdrawn and was red-eyed throughout the proceedings and spoke softly when she was addressed.

For committing a negligent act by not keeping a proper control of her motorcycle, she could have been jailed up to two years or fined, or both.