Underage driving is naturally a huge no-go, but an underage driving and stealing incident?
Well, that’s surely going into the headlines.
15-YO Stole His Dad’s Taxi for a Joyride Near Woodlands & Crashed Into a Building
Just last year (2019), 15-year-old Sean Chan Wei Lun decided to “borrow” his father’s taxi to take two friends for a joyride.
But it soon took a turn for the worse, literally.
On 23 October 2019, Sean reportedly took his father’s car keys and left the house at around 12:20am, without the latter’s knowledge or permission.
It’s unclear whether he drove to fetch his friends, a 15-year-old and 14-year-old.
Sean then lost control of the taxi when he attempted to execute a left turn at the junction of Riverside Road and Marsiling Industrial Estate Road 8.
He is reported to have no prior knowledge of how to drive the vehicle.
The taxi ended up mounting a kerb and only ground to a halt after slamming into the wall of a nearby building, uprooting an entire stop sign in the process.
Sean’s friends, who were seated in the rear seat of the vehicle, sustained varying injuries: the 15-year-old suffered from a laceration on his lip and abrasions on his chest, while the 14-year-old sustained a similar lip laceration and abrasions on his right forearm. The latter also dislocated his foot.
It was not specified whether they had their seat belts on.
On the other hand, the front portion of the taxi was reportedly destroyed, with both front left tyres punctured.
Sentencing
Yesterday (5 June 2020), Sean was sentenced to 18 months’ probation after he pleaded guilty on 6 April to “charges of underage driving, driving while uninsured and committing a rash act that endangered the safety of one of his friends”.
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The teenager, who is now 16, will be barred from leaving the house from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. for the duration of his probation, and has to complete 100 hours of community service. He will also have to enter an electronic monitoring scheme and receive psychological or psychiatric treatment.
Wait, doesn’t that sound like Circuit Breaker and the wearable – nevermind.
Prior to the verdict, “one charge of driving without the consent of the vehicle’s owner and another for causing hurt through a rash act” were taken into account for the teen’s sentencing.
His father did not turn up in court on Friday, due to purported health issues. His mother and elder sister have posted a bond of $5,000 for his good behaviour.
It’s believed that Sean’s relationship with his father has declined since the accident.
District Judge Mesenas told Sean that he should utilise the probation period to rectify his relationship with his father.
We hope that the father-and-son bond will be salvageable, and that Sean refrains from any future joyrides…
Or at least until he’s of a legal age, has a license and can execute left turns with the utmost of ease.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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