SINGAPORE — While delivering a pizza on his bicycle, a part-time Foodpanda deliveryman decided to reply to an Instagram message on his mobile phone, taking both hands off the handlebars to do so.

When Muhammad Adli Adi looked up after putting his phone back in his pocket, 60-year-old Poh Cho Hui was so close to him that he could not avoid colliding into her.

In a tragic turn of events, she died in hospital six days later.

The 19-year-old was sentenced to two weeks’ jail on Friday (Nov 1) after pleading guilty to failing to keep a proper lookout and causing Poh’s death by a negligent act.

The accident happened on June 3 last year at about 8pm. Adli, who was aged 17 then, had been riding on the shared path along the Tampines Park Connector while Poh, who lived nearby, was out for a jog.

The court heard that Adli was required to deliver food from vendors to customers within a 3km radius within 20 minutes, or risk being “clocked out”.

Investigations based on available footage from police cameras revealed that he had been riding along the shared path towards Pasir Ris Drive 1 at about 23 km/h — under the speed limit of 25 km/h.

His bicycle did not have a front headlight even though night had fallen.

While cycling, Adli received a notification on his mobile phone about an Instagram post. He let go of the bicycle handlebars and replied to the message using both hands.

He then held onto the handlebar with his left hand, locked his phone screen with his right hand and placed the phone into his right pocket, before looking up and noticing Poh right in front of him.

He could not avoid colliding into her.

A passer-by walking along the same path had seen Poh making a slight U-turn just before the collision, which meant that she encroached onto Adli’s path.

After the collision, Poh lay on the ground unresponsive with her eyes open and bleeding from the back of her head. She was taken in an ambulance to Changi General Hospital.

Poh was unconscious at that point and had suffered several fractures and severe brain injury.

She was admitted to the surgical intensive unit, but died on the morning of June 9 last year. An autopsy showed that the cause of death was head injuries.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani sought at least three weeks’ jail. He pointed out that there was no evidence that Adli “at any time attempted to apologise” to Poh’s family, and had “continued his conversation on Instagram… very soon after the accident”.

Adli could have been jailed for up to two years, fined or both.