VAN DRIVER PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO CAUSING BOY'S DEATH

BATU PAHAT, May 7 (Bernama) -- A school van driver pleaded not guilty in the Sessions Court here today to a charge of causing a young boy’s death by leaving him in the vehicle in Taman Bukit Indah, Iskandar Puteri, last month.

Yau Chee Weng, 56, entered the plea after the charge was read to him in Mandarin before Judge Mohamad Khalid Abd Karim.

Yau is accused of leaving the five-year-old boy in a multipurpose van, resulting in the child's death, in front of a kindergarten in Taman Bukit Indah, Iskandar Puteri, between 8.00 am and 12.05 pm on April 30.

He is charged under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, a fine not exceeding RM50,000, or both, upon conviction.

In addition, pursuant to Section 31(2) of the Act, the court shall order any convicted person to execute a good behaviour bond for an appropriate period and perform community service of between 36 and 240 hours, to be completed within six months.

Deputy public prosecutor Sharifah Natasha Syed Ahmad appeared for the prosecution, while the accused was represented by counsel Goh Toh Jen.

Mohamad Khalid allowed Yau to be released on bail of RM7,000 with one surety, subject to additional conditions that he must not interfere with witnesses and must surrender his passport pending the disposal of the case.

The court then fixed June 12 for the next case mention. 

On May 1, the media reported that a five-year-old kindergarten pupil had died after being left in a school van for over four hours in Taman Bukit Indah.

Iskandar Puteri police chief ACP M. Kumarasan said the boy, believed to have been left behind when the driver dropped off other pupils around 7.30 am, was found unconscious in the van at noon.

Subsequently, police arrested a man employed as a school van driver in the Taman Bukit Indah area at 2.40 pm the same day.

-- BERNAMA