Man Who Purposely Crashed into LTA Officer With Overweight E-Scooter Jailed for 20 Days

PMD and e-scooter might sound like something from the 1800s, but they were actually just banned about a year ago, and before that, accidents involving those killer machines were plentiful.

But an accident that’s not an accident?

Not so common.

On Thursday (10 December), a 41 year-old man was convicted for hurting two Land Transport Authority (LTA) officers in an incident that occurred in 2018.

The man was sentenced to jail for 20 days.

The man, Yousri Dahlan, was riding a non-compliant e-scooter which weighed 31.4kg, when the officers tried to stop him.

Instead of complying with their instructions like any normal human being, Yousri rode at full speed towards one of the officers. This caused the officer to be flung several metres away.

While the other attempted to grab the e-scooter, Yousri pushed it against him forcibly and knocked the handlebar against his wrist.

Yousri contested against three charges of obstructing the duties of LTA officers, including committing rash acts against them.

In addition, he also pleaded guilty to one charge of committing a rash act that endangered personal safety or lives, and another charge for riding a non-compliant personal mobility device.

If you remember, devices should not weigh more than 20kg and must be less than 70cm wide. Yousri’s device not only weighed 31.4kg, but it was also 72cm wide.

Big yikes.

So, what exactly happened?

The Incident

On the fateful day, Yousri was riding along Hougang Avenue 7, and two LTA officers were on the lookout for non-compliant devices. One other officer, Ardie Indra Bambang Herman, was not in uniform during the time.

He spotted Yousri while he was along the footpath at Hougang Avenue 7. Then, he went to inform Asrul Fahmi Rashid who was stationed there.

Mr Ardie made eye contact with Yousri after he had made a 180-degree turn, and told him to stop when he was about 8m away from him. Yousri charged full speed into Mr Ardie, and flung him almost 3m away.

Mr Ardie suffered from a mild abrasion on his lower leg and tenderness on his shoulder.

Mr Asrul then turned on his body-cam in an attempt to chase Yousri. While fleeing the scene, Yousri lost control of his device on a grass verge and hit an unidentified pedestrian.

Mr Asrul then held on to Yousri’s device. However, Yousri pulled it away from him and sped off onto Hougang Avenue 7.

It was not revealed how he was eventually caught.

During the trial, it was also noted that Yousri had repeatedly changed the events that had occurred. He claimed that he did not collide with Mr Ardie, and something “happened to him” as he fell.

He could have faced up to a year in jail or a $5,000 fine, or both, for causing hurt by a rash act.

He could also have faced a year in jail or a $5,000 fine, or both, for obstructing authorised officers from performing their duties under the Active Mobility Act (AMA).

Active Mobility Act

What is the AMA, which doesn’t stand for Ask Me Anything here?

In May 2018, the AMA was implemented to enable safer sharing of paths across users.

Under the AMA, devices include:

• Bicycles
• Power-Assisted Bicycles (PAB)
• Motorised and Non-motorised Personal Mobility Devices (PMDs): Including Kick-scooters, electric scooters, hoverboards, unicycles
• Personal Mobility Aids (PMAs): Wheelchairs, motorised wheelchairs or mobility scooters

Each device can be used on certain paths and users must adhere to the guidelines.

For the full list of important guidelines, you can refer to this.

Moral of the story? Listen to officers and don’t be stupid.

Though I wonder if you still remember how an e-scooter look like or not.

Featured Image: Oleg Elkov / Shutterstock.com