GEORGE TOWN: The woman involved in a six-vehicle crash in Penang which killed a technician yesterday, should be investigated for murder.
This was the opinion of law lecturer Shamsher Singh Thind, who said said this incident was not an ordinary case of causing death due to reckless or dangerous driving.
"This is murder.
"I call upon the police to investigate the death of Mohamad Fandi Rosli, 26, under Section 302 of the Penal Code, and not under Section 41(1) of the Road Transport Act 1987," he said.
In the 7.50am incident, the woman, 19, believed to be drunk and high on methamphetamine, drove her car at high speed against the flow of traffic along the North-South Expressway (NSE) after the Sungai Dua toll on mainland Butterworth, and triggered a multiple vehicle collision.
Her Proton Gen 2 struck the Perodua Kelisa driven by Fandi, which led a chain of other collisions.
Fandi died on the spot due to severe head and bodily injuries.
The woman and four other vehicle drivers escaped with minor injuries.
Elaborating, Shamsher said, according to Section 300(d) of the Penal Code, culpable homicide is murder if any person, committing an act that causes a death, knows that the act is so imminently dangerous that it must in all probability cause death, or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death, and commits such act without any excuse for incurring the risk of causing death, or such injury as aforesaid.
Shamser said for example, if someone were to fire a loaded cannon into a crowd and it kills someone, then the person who fired the weapon is guilty of murder, regardless of whether there was intent to kill anyone.
"In the case before us, driving in an opposite lane at 110 km/h is as dangerous as firing a loaded cannon into a crowd.
"Now, the woman driver, has any defence which is recognised by the law (like she was drugged involuntarily, or she was escaping from some other danger) is irrelevant at this investigative stage.
"She may rely on it during the trial later, but for now, the investigation should be conducted as if a murder has been committed," he added.