Spooked cabbie jailed for 20 months over death

A taxi driver with a long record of dangerous driving was sentenced to 20 months in jail yesterday, after he let a ghost story on the radio distract him enough to crash his cab, killing a passenger.

Chui Hon-kwong, 63, also had his driving licence revoked for six years for causing death by dangerous driving.

Chui told police earlier that he thought he had seen ghosts while listening to a horror programme, as he drove a young couple on the Kwun Tong Bypass at about 3am on April 16 last year.

District Court Judge Eddie Yip Chor-man said the horror programme had distracted Chui from his driving.

"There is nothing much to criticise if a taxi driver listens to a radio programme. But the defendant still listened [to ghost stories] even though he felt scared. Suspicion gives rise to bogeymen [in the mind]," he said, citing a Chinese saying.

The court heard that, in his distracted state of mind, Chui heard sniggering coming from the back seat. In the rear-view mirror he could see only "two tufts of hair", so he swivelled around to take a look.

He discovered the young couple had slumped low on the seat.