Driver crashes test car, sales exec dies
-
Article from Straits Times 4 April 2007
Do you think its really him?
Driver crashes test car, sales exec dies
# MARCH 21, 2007: Now he's shopping for these hot wheels
Netizens outraged that he's shopping for another fast car while still under probe over fatal test-drive
By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent
ONLINE forums used by the community of car enthusiasts have been aflame lately.
The target of their ire: the young man who got into an accident while test-driving a Mazda MX-5 in October 2005, which caused the death of the Mazda sales executive seated beside him.
These netizens are worked up because the said young man is - just 18 months later - shopping for a new high-performance car in an apparently nonchalant fashion.
Mr Regan Lee, 26, declared in a posting on mycarforum.com on March 21 that he was undecided between a Volkswagen Golf GTI and a Subaru WRX STI-S.
'Really in a dilemma at the moment,' he wrote. 'Would really like to own the GTI, but an extra $10k in car price would mean i gotta eat less every month ...lol...What you guys think?' ('lol' stands for 'laughing out loud' in online forum parlance.)
Discussions had begun on a cordial note, with forum participants offering their personal assessments of the GTI and the WRX.
Soon enough, someone recalled that Mr Lee was the one at the wheel of the Mazda MX-5 in the crash that left 22-year-old sales executive Angelia He Xueli dead.
That was when civility went out the window.
'Put him behind bars,' went the posting by Hamster Fest.
Legendkiller declared: 'He can run but he cannot hide. I will do my best to ensure that he does not get to drive another car again.'
The online attack spilled into other online forums such as Sammyboy.com and Hardwarezone.
In the latter, the discussion thread in the current affairs section pulled in a whopping 63,000 views - more than 50 times the average number that other topics in the section attract.
On the day of the accident, Mr Lee took a $110,000 Mazda MX-5 convertible for a test-drive.
Barely five minutes into the drive, while along Upper Paya Lebar Road, Mr Lee lost control of the MX-5, a car known for its above-par road-holding.
The car flew over the divider, smashed head-on into a black BMW, flipped over it and came crashing down onto a van on another lane.
He was unhurt, but Ms He died an hour later in hospital.
Mr Lee was arrested but was released on bail.
He has not been charged to this day, and police said yesterday that investigations were still being carried out.
Since the accident, Upper Paya Lebar Road has been repaved and realigned. Mazda Motor (Singapore) has received an insurance payout for the badly crushed MX-5, which is believed to have been scrapped.
Mr Lee could not be contacted for comment.
Hardwarezone member James Ng, 25, when asked why he thought forum participants have come down so hard on Mr Lee, said it probably had to do with the perception that justice had not been served, and that 'he still has his driving licence and he still poses a danger to others'.
Mr Ng, an undergraduate at SIM University, said forum posters were assuming Mr Lee was responsible for the accident.
He added that people also had not forgotten that it cost the life of a young woman.
[email protected]
NETIZENS SAY
'He can run but he cannot hide. I will do my best to ensure that he does not get to drive another car again.'
LEGENDKILLER
'He still has his driving licence and he still poses a danger to others.' -
James Ng
-
tt's is an existin thread in Car section
+1 b4 FI close tis thread -
-
don't know what happened, but is it wrong for him to get another car?
just because he killed some one he should stop himself for buying cars forever? theres a limit to feeling guilty or responsible too
-
i rem last time there was a debate if he is the son of some big shot.....if not how come nothing happened to him?
-
wow.. get a person killed while test driving..but still possess the license to drive.. now where do i see the logic in this.. and to think that he accident happened in 2005 and the case is still being investigated?.. lol.. and i thought the TP are known for their efficiencies... i'm having a laugh here..
-
cont in Car forum