Drunk driver crashes car in Yishun park connector; gets jail, fine and driving ban

SINGAPORE — After a night of drinking at a bar in Woodlands, a woman decided to drive herself home despite being unsteady on her feet.
On the way, she made an illegal right turn in Yishun and drove onto a sheltered pedestrian walkway before entering a park connector.
After she crashed her car into a low concrete wall in the park connector, she abandoned the vehicle and headed home.
On Tuesday (Sept 17), 36-year-old Lim Zhao Rui was sentenced to two weeks’ jail and fined S$6,000. She was also disqualified from driving any vehicle for three years.
Lim pleaded guilty to a charge each for reckless driving and drink driving. A charge of failing to inform the owner of the concrete wall that she had damaged it was taken into consideration during sentencing.
On Nov 18 in 2022, Lim drove to Woods Square, a mall located in Woodlands, and headed to a bar for work matters and to meet her friends for drinks.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Colin Ng told the court that between 4.45pm and 10pm, she drank eight pints of beer. Then, she decided to drive home despite being intoxicated.
Court documents did not state where she lived.
At about 11pm, she arrived at the junction of Yishun Avenue 2 and Yishun Central 1. This was about 9km away from Woods Square.
There, she made an illegal right turn onto a sheltered pedestrian walkway leading to the park connector along Block 763 Yishun Street 72.
In-car camera footage from Lim’s vehicle was shown in court. In the video, she is captured pausing at the right lane waiting for about 10 seconds  for oncoming traffic to pass.
Then, she turned right onto a walkway and drove on it behind two pedestrians.
Video footage showed her turning right again into the park connector before the car crashed into a low concrete wall.
DPP Ng said that Lim got out of the car after the crash, retrieved her wallet and two mobile phones, before calling her friend to pick her up because “she was drunk and wanted to sleep”.
Lim’s friend then met her in the vicinity, hailed a taxi and took Lim home.
DPP Ng said: “The accused did not inform her friend of the collision and left the car on walkway of the park connector.”
He added that the low concrete wall had scratches on its edge, while the front-left portion of the car was damaged.
When Lim reached her doorstep, she realised that she had left her house keys in the car. She then went to the void deck of the housing block.
About 15 to 30 minutes later, police officers arrived at the corridor of Lim’s home when they spotted her exiting the lift near her flat.
When asked, Lim repeatedly denied that she drove the car and claimed that she had left it at the car park of Woods Square. 
She was arrested the next day and an analysis of her blood sample showed that she had 136mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. This is higher than the prescribed limit of 80mg per 100ml.
DPP Ng sought a sentence of two to three weeks’ jail and a fine of S$5,000 to S$8,000. He also called for Lim to be disqualified from driving all vehicles for about three years.
He argued that the punishment was warranted since Lim had driven a distance of 9km before turning onto a pedestrian walkway.
“It was fortuitous that there was no personal injury and only minor property damage,” he said of Lim’s reckless driving onto the park connector.
Lim’s lawyers told the court that Lim had a “momentary lapse of judgement” because she had just broken up with her long-term partner. 
Ms Yap En Li of law firm Drew & Napier said: “She realises now it was a mistake… she foolishly believed that stopping her drinking an hour prior to the incident was enough.”
Ms Yap added that her client had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and cooperated with the police after sobering up from her drunken state.
Several testimonials from Lim’s friends and employer were also submitted as part of her mitigation plea. They described Lim as someone with a “strong moral compass in life”, Ms Yap told the court.
Although the lawyer claimed that Lim had asked a passerby to call the police after crashing at the park connector, DPP Ng said that this was not clear.
The prosecution added that the police had received three calls about the incident, of which two callers had told the investigating officer that they were not approached by Lim.
A third caller could not be reached, but his police report suggested that Lim had not approached him either since he said that there was no one at the car, DPP Ng told the court.
“Even if the accused informed a passerby, this does not lower her culpability… she still left the scene,” DPP Ng said.
For driving under the influence of alcohol, Lim could have been fined S$2,000 to S$10,000 or jailed up to a year or both.
For rash driving, she could have been jailed up to a year or fined up to S$5,000, or both.