A container truck driver who caused a fatal accident by switching lanes without checking was convicted yesterday of dangerous driving causing the death of a 52-year-old dump truck driver. Magistrate John Glass said driver Yiu Pui-tin, 42, was incompetent to handle his large vehicle at high speed on an expressway. The magistrate is due to pass sentence on May 29 pending a background report. Yiu has been remanded in custody. Yiu admitted on Monday his driving triggered the collision on the Kowloon-bound slow lane of Tsing Long Highway after he made the manoeuvre without due care. His lawyer asked the court to convict him on the lesser charge of careless driving, noting that he was travelling at a legal speed when he crossed a broken white line to overtake another vehicle at the northern end of Ting Kau Bridge on August 14 last year. The magistrate rejected the request, saying Yiu had fallen 'far below the standard required for a competent driver under the Highway Code'. Yiu steered sharply to the right without checking traffic and rammed the dump truck, which was travelling next to his vehicle. Its driver was thrown out of his cab even though he was wearing a seat belt, because the crash tore away the door pillar to which the belt had been anchored. Two following vans collided nose-to-tail because of the collision. A forensic report, which said the container truck's right indicator was switched on during the accident, was irrelevant because it failed to explain at what time the indicator was switched on, the court heard. Other drivers involved in the accidents said they did not see any signal from Yiu when he switched lanes. The magistrate stressed that Yiu failed to keep a sensible distance from the vehicle in front, did not check to ensure the road was clear before overtaking, and did not give clear overtaking signals to other road users. Mr Glass also rejected an appeal to give the truck driver a suspended sentence, saying his driving showed that he disregarded the special training needed to drive a vehicle of such size and weight. 'You totally and blatantly ignored the safety of other road users at the time of the accident,' he said. 'It wasn't simply a lapse of judgment. Your driving standard at the time was very bad ... you knowingly and totally ignored your training.' Defence barrister Cecilia Liang asked for a suspended jail term so that Yiu could continue to support his two young daughters and his aged parents. Yiu had quit his job as a professional driver, and was having difficulty finding a new career at his age, she said.
