A 42-year-old bus captain, Shifuddin Bin Hussin, was sentenced to 12 weeks' jail on Aug. 22 after he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his bus, injuring three passengers.
According to Shin Min Daily News (SMDN), Shifuddin was also suspended from driving all classes of vehicles for five years.
Fell asleep at the wheel for 3 seconds
The bus captain had only four hours of sleep the night before his accident on June 8, 2021.
Investigations revealed that he had returned home at around 10pm the previous night on June 7, 2021. He managed to fall asleep at 11:30pm.
Shifuddin then woke up at 3:30am, before starting his shift at 5:30am.
At 2:47pm, Shifuddin was driving his bus down Yishun Street 31 when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed the bus into a cement bollard in front of a bus stop.
Dashcam footage inside the bus showed that Shifuddin had fallen asleep while driving the bus and closed his eyes for 3 seconds.
Passengers suffered broken arms, facial fracture
According to SMDN, there were 10 passengers on board the bus when the accident occurred.
Three of them suffered injuries, two had to be taken to the hospital.
One passenger, an 85-year-old man, fell onto the ground, resulting in a broken left arm and a strained back.
A 53-year-old woman old suffered a facial fracture after hitting the seat in front of her.
A 34-year-old man suffered a broken arm, a strained back and a cut lip, he opted not to be conveyed to the hospital via the ambulance but sought his own treatment at a clinic afterwards.
None of the passengers required surgery for their injuries.
Bus captain claims he had not enough time to rest between shifts
The prosecution asked the judge to sentence Shifuddin to 10 to 12 weeks in jail, and to suspend him from all classes of driving licenses for five years.
The prosecution said Shifuddin should bear most of the responsibility of the accident, as it was caused by his lack of sleep.
The bus captain pleaded for leniency and asked the judge for a lighter sentence.
He said he was unable to get enough rest due to the shift system his bus company employs.
According to a statement from an SBS Transit spokesperson, the bus captain had been with the company for two years, and has since resigned.
The spokesperson added that SBS Transit's shift roster system automatically assigns at least nine hours of rest time to bus captains between shifts, and that this system was in place at the time of the incident.
Bus captains are also often reminded to get enough rest between shifts so they can focus on driving, the spokesperson added.
https://mothership.sg/2022/08/bus-captain-sleep-crash-jailed-yishun/
